Looking Back

This week has been quite compared to the last and has slipped past surprisingly quickly in a blur of exams and studying and work. It worries me that there have been many weeks when I have felt this happening and I start to wonder if I have wasted my time here in Canada. In light of this disconcerting feeling I have tried to sum up my feelings and experiences of the country (so far) in my blog this week.

 

When my plane first touched down on Canadian soil it was still summer and Canada was a land of mystery and wonder to me. The sun was shining from the bright blue sky over wide streets in a city made of sky scrapers. Summer was the season of new experiences the sunny weather reflecting my mood of excitement. I explored the city of Ottawa finding all the best places to eat drink and hang out in the city. I spent hours exploring the city’s parks from the Rideau Canal for Gatineau Park and hours more finding good places for live music. I was in love with my new city and never wanted my time there to end.

 

Summer turned into autumn and the trees turned into every glorious share of red and orange imaginable. As the leaves fell and crumpled from the trees, even as the world became a beautiful paint pallet I felt that feeling of wonder leave with it and as the brisk October wind blew after thanksgiving weekend I started missing home. The city so full of wonder still felt too strange and I longed for the familiar streets of Edinburgh.

 

November brought the end of autumn as the now bare trees were blanketed in snow and winter began in full force. Perhaps it was simply the passage of time or maybe the snow which brought about my change in mood but either way winter brought with it a sense of contentment. It could be simply that I no longer feel slightly lost as I have to fully concentrate on where I’m going far too much to enjoy shopping but in any case Ottawa became home. Of course it could just as likely be that the joy I feel in the snow and the beauty in Canada’s frozen landscape has once again captivated. I re-explored all the places I found when I first arrived and returning to them drew me back into the wondrous mindset I was in when I first arrived in Canada.

 

Now in March as the days finally start to become warmer, even only slightly I look towards spring and the exciting new adventures it will bring, in Ottawa and as much of Canada I can squeeze in before I return home. As I read back over what I have read in this blog I have realised that I have basically describe ‘the three steps of living in a new country’ written in the university handbook. This are ‘honeymoon’, ‘home sickness’ and ‘a new home’ I think my way sounds more exciting.

Spring Break

So I have eventually returned from my whirlwind tour of the USA that we crammed into our ten day spring break. The original plan included two twelve hour bus journeys, two plane flights, three cities and two different coasts.

 

We had planned to roll out of Ottawa early Friday morning and head for New York City however out organisations skills meant that we missed the early bus leaving us to arrive at 12.30am rather than the far more respectable 8.30pm. However New York was worth the ridiculous travel time and we squeezed allot into our two days in the city. We saw Times Square, the Chrysler Building, climbed the Empire State Building, sailed past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island Ferry and even managed to secure tickets to see ‘Legally Blond’ on Broadway.

 

On Monday we jetted cross country to the west coast to the city of San Francisco. I adore San Francisco, it’s a vibrant and exciting city with intense distinct neighbourhoods and allot of stuff you might term as history. San Francisco was a change of pace in the holiday where we did less and enjoyed more. We visited Alcatraz to learn the history of what once was the USA’s most secure prison. We spent time on Pier 39 which offers beautiful coastal views, historical ships and sea lions as well as excellent fish restaurants. We spent time wandering through the vintage clothes and second hand bookstores in the old hippy areas where I struggled not to blow all my money, watched a parade in China Town celebrating Chinese New Year and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and most excitingly for my geologist’s brain, saw the trace of the San Andreas Fault. San Francisco also gave us the opportunity to eat out in good restaurants and heave quiet nights out in lively cocktail bars so by Friday we were relaxed, well fed and ready to head to Boston out final stop on the trip.

 However flying to Boston is allot harder than initially anticipated as our flight was cancelled due to the heavy snow storms that blanked the city and suddenly we couldn’t leave San Francisco until Sunday night. To be honest this was not a major disappointment to me as I was enjoying San Francisco too much to want to leave. This delay in our flights did leave us with one minor problem- I needed to be back in Ottawa by Tuesday for a midterm exam which meant that there was no time for a rest between out plane and out bus journey. Our plane left San Francisco at 9.15pm and touched down in New York City at 5.20am. From JFK airport we headed to Port Authority bus station to catch the first bus to Ottawa. This bus left at 9.30 and with the stop at the boarder and a change in Montreal didn’t arrive into Ottawa until twelve hours later. We splashed out on a taxi back to campus and I crashed into bed almost 36hours after I got up and slept. An exhausting journey but totally worth it.

Winterlude

This week Ottawa is in the middle of the Winterlude festival. This tradition is a tradition celebrated in many Canadian cities and is the Canadian winter festival. In Ottawa these festivities are centred on the Rideau Canal as it freezes in the winter to become the longest skate way in the world.

 

This week marked my first venture out onto this historic ice rink and it was eventful to say the least. I have purchased a pair of budget hockey skates on the recommendation of my Canadian friends with the assurance that I will love skating and they will be a major improvement on the rentals. My skating experience consists of a few trips to indoor rinks as a kid and the usual trip to the temporary rinks in Glasgow or Edinburgh every Christmas. Therefore my skills on the ice are pretty non- excitant. We stumbled out onto the canal in the early evening just as the sun was setting over and casting a pinkish glow over the scenery and just as the snow began to spiral from the sky. We rushed piles of snow off the benched placed on the ice of the canal to change into out skates and we were ready. I rose unsteadily to my feet and scraped my skates tentatively over the bumpy surface. Skating on the canal is more difficult to master than skating anywhere else I have been as the surface is much rougher than the artificial rinks I have skated on before now. However I found skating with more confidence and a little more speed as well as pretending that the ice was flat helped a little and soon I was managing to propel myself in a forward direction, not with any style but at least I was skating and not falling too much. Skating on the canal is a beautiful experience when we arrived it was quiet and calm and I felt like I was visiting another world as the snow spiralled around us and the sun slowly set.

 

The peace and magic of our ice skate was broken by a yell from one of my friends and I turned to see her lying on the ice clutching her knee and yelling “It popped out!” It looked gross and very painful. We called 911 and tried to describe exactly where we were exactly on the ice and then described how to get there. Eventually after some detailed descriptions and 30 minuets of confusion they eventually arrived and whisked her off to French speaking hospital for even more confusion and more pain as they popped it back in!

 

Despite this slightly unfortunate start to my Canadian ice skating I have returned again to skating on the canal to perfect my technique. Ok- so my technique is a long way from being perfect but it was improved as well as being enjoyable and definitely less eventful than the first trip.

 

The other festivities associated with Winterlude include a snow sculpture competition, a snow slide park and a multitude of outdoor concerts. I’m still trying to figure out why in this freezing cold country Canadians feel it is logical to celebrate winter with outdoor entertainment. Therefore these events are scattered throughout the various parks and open spaces thought the city. So it has been another week celebrating the winter and I have to say I’m looking forward to the sun in San Francisco.

Winterlude

This week Ottawa is in the middle of the Winterlude festival. This tradition is a tradition celebrated in many Canadian cities and is the Canadian winter festival. In Ottawa these festivities are centred on the Rideau Canal as it freezes in the winter to become the longest skate way in the world.

 

This week marked my first venture out onto this historic ice rink and it was eventful to say the least. I have purchased a pair of budget hockey skates on the recommendation of my Canadian friends with the assurance that I will love skating and they will be a major improvement on the rentals. My skating experience consists of a few trips to indoor rinks as a kid and the usual trip to the temporary rinks in Glasgow or Edinburgh every Christmas. Therefore my skills on the ice are pretty non- excitant. We stumbled out onto the canal in the early evening just as the sun was setting over and casting a pinkish glow over the scenery and just as the snow began to spiral from the sky. We rushed piles of snow off the benched placed on the ice of the canal to change into out skates and we were ready. I rose unsteadily to my feet and scraped my skates tentatively over the bumpy surface. Skating on the canal is more difficult to master than skating anywhere else I have been as the surface is much rougher than the artificial rinks I have skated on before now. However I found skating with more confidence and a little more speed as well as pretending that the ice was flat helped a little and soon I was managing to propel myself in a forward direction, not with any style but at least I was skating and not falling too much. Skating on the canal is a beautiful experience when we arrived it was quiet and calm and I felt like I was visiting another world as the snow spiralled around us and the sun slowly set.

 

The peace and magic of our ice skate was broken by a yell from one of my friends and I turned to see her lying on the ice clutching her knee and yelling “It popped out!” It looked gross and very painful. We called 911 and tried to describe exactly where we were exactly on the ice and then described how to get there. Eventually after some detailed descriptions and 30 minuets of confusion they eventually arrived and whisked her off to French speaking hospital for even more confusion and more pain as they popped it back in!

 

Despite this slightly unfortunate start to my Canadian ice skating I have returned again to skating on the canal to perfect my technique. Ok- so my technique is a long way from being perfect but it was improved as well as being enjoyable and definitely less eventful than the first trip.

 

The other festivities associated with Winterlude include a snow sculpture competition, a snow slide park and a multitude of outdoor concerts. I’m still trying to figure out why in this freezing cold country Canadians feel it is logical to celebrate winter with outdoor entertainment. Therefore these events are scattered throughout the various parks and open spaces thought the city. So it has been another week celebrating the winter and I have to say I’m looking forward to the sun in San Francisco.

The Leafs and the Patriots

For me this week has been dominated by sports, more specifically my confused and muddled attempt to understand the scary new lands of North American sports.

 

The most exciting sporting event of the weekend was the near miraculous win of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Ottawa Senators for what must have been only the third time this season. For anyone not into hockey- that’s bad. Considering that Ottawa is my adopted Canadian hometown my joy at there defeat my come as a surprise but I was recruited to leafs mania by my Torontonian flat mate and can’t claim to regret the choice. The Leafs are the underdogs, no-one actually expects them to win so when they do the celebrations are fantastic. The Leafs have an obsessive and committed fan base that turn up religiously to every game to watch their team get destroyed, while truly believe that this year will be the year they win the first trophy in 40 years. This kind of support is brilliantly because it reminds me of home and the ‘Tartan Army’ which seems to suffer from the same delusion. Hockey is a sport I enjoy, it is fast paced and exciting, it requires lots of skill to play and looks fantastic. It’s a sport full of ‘characters’ and the game will frequently dissolve into violent fights in the middle of the ice with the puck lying forgotten.

 

This weekend also brought the most exciting American football event of the year- the Superbowl. This was my first introduction to the sport and I thought for sure I was in for a great evening; we had tickets for what claimed to be ‘the Greatest Superbowl Party Ever!’ at Oliver’s Bar and I was ready. When we arrived the place was packed with excited fans, banners adorned the walls and drinks were being served in football shaped glasses. We found ourselves seats next to one of the huge screens that were scattered round the bar and I prepared myself for the biggest game of the year. It was going to be a battle between two of the greats with the New York Giants and the New England Patriots and tensions were high as the patriots were on track for a record breaking perfect season.

 

After about half an hour of watching I knew for sure that I hate American football. The official game time for a game is one hour so after thirty minuets you would expect to be nearing half time. However American football is played in infuriatingly short bursts of ‘set plays’ that I won’t pretend to understand and last usually about ten seconds. This crazy broken play is further disrupted by advertisements which are shown every ten minuets so you feel as if you are watching adverts broken up by football instead of the other way round. Therefore the hour long game dragged on to almost four hours of boredom. About the only exciting thing about the game was that the Giants won seventeen to fourteen and destroyed the Patriots perfect season. I left the game with one certainty I would not be watching another. At least Hockey is bigger in Canada, there’s a sport I can enjoy.

Qubec City

Quebec City is truly amazing, a beautiful winter wonderland. The heart of the city known as ‘Old Town’ sits perched on the highest point overlooking the river. In this area the streets winds randomly up and down the hilly landscape. These narrow streets are further closed in by the brick buildings each with an individual character then and this whole shambles in enclosed by the city’s defensive walls. From the battlements the whole of the surrounding landscape can be surveyed. Bellow this defensive boundary is ‘New Town’ built after the risk of attack from first the British and later the Americans had passed. This area squeezed under the cliff and linked by a number of seemingly endless stairways is traditionally is area of merchants and the streets are filled with shops and cafes squeezed into tiny units selling everything for clothes and shoes to pastries to glassware blown on site.

 

Moving further from the cliff side and the walls is an industrial area and eventually the St Laurent River. In the summer this port accepts hundreds of cruise ships which sail in from the Atlantic Ocean. However in the winter only the two ferry boats shuttle back and forth the 900 meters between Quebec City and Levis. These ferries churn through the half frozen waters. Huge frozen chunks of ice float slowly along in the gentle current as the horrendously cold temperatures freeze the surface water and then strong tides shatter it again. Behind the Old Town lies the Plains of Abraham, a huge park protected from roads and development and is filled with cross-country skiers.

 

Quebec City is a place in love with winter. It hosts the largest winter festival in the world. This celebration includes and incredible month of events from ice skating to dog slaying and outdoor concerts. The most prominent of these events is the ‘Ice Bash’ competition. This is a three mile long downhill extreme skating rink that winds it was downhill through Old Town, over jumps, ramps, steps and hairpin bends to end up at the gates of New Town. The best of Canada’s extreme ice skaters gather here to hurl themselves down this ramp at speeds reaching close to 40 miles per hour as they race each other for the title as champion.

 

The city is sprinkled with Christmas lights which remain on display until the end of February. Adding to the decorations are the ice and snow sculptures scattered through out the city which sometimes even creating elaborate restaurant fronts or outdoor bars. The most elaborate of these lies a short distance from the city and is the world famous Ice Hotel. This building is carved entirely out of snow and ice in the month of December and remains open until the spring melt. Everything in the hotel is made of ice, the beds, the tables, the chairs, the nightclub, and the glasses for your drinks even the pen you sign the visitor’s book with. The walls are covered in elaborate and beautiful carvings which make this a fantastic place to visit but I imagine an uncomfortable place to stay.

 

My weekend in Quebec City was exciting as it is an amazing place to celebrate the winter although the temperature was regularly bellow -25oC. So despite this being a winter wonderland I think next time I will visit in the summer.

Culture Shock

Now of course I am not suffering from culture shock, I have been in Canada since September so any differences in culture I long since got over. However the start of the new semester has seen a few exchange students leave and a few new ones arrive and I started thinking about when I first arrived in Canada.

 

We were all warned about culture shock when we arrived in both presentations and over dramatic leaflets telling us to look out for symptoms and where to contact councillors if we needed it. Even at the time this seemed ridicules- what culture shock? A first glace Canada is no different to home, it’s developed, and it gets all the same movies, music and TV as the UK and is for the most part white and English speaking. However after living here a little while there are subtle differences.

 

The first biggest glaring difference has got to be sport. Now that seems like a strange one to start with but Ice Hockey in Canada is like football in the UK it’s not a sport it’s a lifestyle. In Canada you support your city team, which in Ottawa is the Senators and you support them through thick and thin. By student this is either done in the residence bar or by screaming from the ‘nose bleed’ seats at the stadium. ‘Nose bleed’ seats are the cheapest available and offer next to no view of the rink and offer the risk of getting a puck to the face- hence the term ‘nose bleed’. Of course this rings with familiarity as it is pretty much how football is viewed in the UK.

 

The next most obvious cultural difference is probably language. French is a big deal in Ottawa despite the fact that Ontario is not a bilingual province. Canada however is bilingual and required all its parliament members to speak both French and English. This along with Ottawa’s close proximity to Quebec (whose official language is French) allows for a high number of francophone in the capital. This is not problematic as everybody speaks both French and English, it is however strange to hear so much of a different language in a place where you live. On the same note as this Canada, more specifically so I’m told the big southern cities are very multi-cultural. Canada accepts a huge number of immigrants and has a great deal more of second and third generation residence as well. This large immigrant population along with the vast native population gives Canada a much more rich, interesting and diverse culture than I am accustomed to.

 

I guess the more accurate description of what I experienced when moving to Canada was not culture ‘shock’ but more culture huh? And I hope that all the new arrivals are finding this too. Canada is just enough like home to be a comfortable, easy place to live but just different enough to create an exciting and varied place to explore. I think the biggest shock when moving to Canada is definitely not the culture but the weather.

I’m Settling in so it’s Time to go!

This week I feel I am finally settling back to the routine and the rhythm of living in Ottawa. Classes are running full force and I’m already starting to plan for midterms and start researching term papers. I’m spending more time than I would like in the library but a least the reading gets done when I’m there. All my flatmates have returned from all over Canada and the globe this weekend so our first chocolate night is planned for tonight. I can’t wait for a night of girly movies, chocolate, ice cream and gossip, oh and did I mention the chocolate.

 

The other good news I received this week is that the bag I lost on the flight back to Canada has managed to find its way back to London Heathrow with a Slight detour to Muscat. I have no idea why my bag felt like a short break in Oman especially without me but I’m just crossing my fingers than they manage to send it to Canada without anymore problems. The even better news is that I got bored waiting for the bag to show up so bought lots of new clothes. So it’s the best outcome possible really: I got the excuse to go shopping guilt free and I also get all my stuff back.

 

This feeling of being settled has allowed me to turn my attentions to where I will be going next and I’ve been planning a few great trips. At the end of the month I’m heading to Quebec City to see the sights and experience carnival. Carnival is the biggest winter festival in the world and includes concerts, snow sculpting, dog racing, ice skating, parades, boat races and even a hotel made completely of ice. I have been trying to sort out what I am going to do for spring break! As my first spring break experience I want to be sure to do something memorable. As is stands the most appealing plan it to fly to San Francisco with a two day stop-over in New York City on the way out and Boston on the way back. As whirlwind and ultimately exhausting this will probably turn out to be it could also be a whole lot of fun. It also gives me the chance to meet up with friends I worked with over the summer who live in The San Francisco Bay and it will be great to catch up. Finally my travel infected brain had been planning my epic trip in May once term is over and I’m free for a while. We have posted a giant map of Canada on the wall of out kitchen and are currently in the process of sticking pins into all the places we want to visit. As it stands we will be starting our train journey in Halifax, Nova Scotia and finishing in Vancouver, British Columbia, stopping at least once in every province and passing some of the most beautiful landscapes Canada has to offer.

 For now however I’m just enjoying being a little settled, at least for the next two weeks, then let the fun begin!

The Winter Term?

Well my first week of the new semester is almost over and I have been thrown full force back into the crazy mayhem that is university life. Classes have started up and I have been almost immediately drowned in all the assignments and reports that are due only a worrying few weeks away. However all the classes look interesting and enjoyable, well at least as much as can be expected from these things. All except from my Structural Geology labs where my non-Carleton background is screamingly obvious in the huge chunk of background knowledge which is missing. So I have spent most of my free time this week perfecting the art of Steronets. Allot of this has been by myself, just staring confused at my textbook but also with the helpful and ever patient Teaching Assistants. Who have explained and re-explained as I failed to grasp the concept again and again. However the light has finally dawned and things can only get easier from that, at least I certainly hope so.

 

Aside from reeling from the shock of being thrown back into classes I am also reeling with the fact that this marks the halfway point of my stay in Canada. This is an unbelievably thought as it seems like only yesterday coming to Canada was just dream and now here I am already halfway through.

 

Yoga classes have also, of course started up again as well and this semester I plan on going to classes twice a week. These along with a static bike class and the free swim times at the pool will hopefully allow me to keep to my new year’s resolution to get fit.

 

Despite returning to Canada in the depths of winter at the start of the winter term the weather has been incredibly mild with temperatures reaching as high as 9oC and not falling bellow 0oC most days. This surprisingly warm weather is both a blessing and a curse. It is fantastic because my still missing baggage contains my big, red and most importantly warm winter jackets as well as my gloves. While I am still clinging to the vague hope that the bag will eventually turn up the warm weather means I don’t have to buy another one. The downside however is that the three feet of snow that was lying on the ground before I left Canada is melting so the ground is now covered in a layer of brown, slushy and slippery snow which makes getting anywhere much harder than usual. The melting snow banks at the side of the road are also becoming less magical as the fresh layers on the tops of these banks melt to reveal all the black mud and grit thrown up by the passing cars. My magical winter wonderland has been transformed into a damp, muddy and wet place. I have been reliably informed that it will snow again soon, the eight year old in me jumps for joy but the adult in the thin coat shivers.

Back in Canada

After my whirlwind two weeks at home I have returned to the relative calm of Ottawa. The Christmas break has been hectic to say the least. In the past two weeks I have celebrated three different this Christmas, New Year and my 20^th birthday. For New Year I celebrated at the Glasgow Street Party with my boyfriend, we got to see some great new Scottish bands and fireworks when the clock struck midnight. My birthday was a somewhat less extravagant affair where I just spent the day hanging out with my family before we all had dinner together and I got cake and presents!

 

Aside from the parties I spent my two holiday weeks catching up with friends from both school and university, chilling with my sisters but admittedly spent most of my time hanging out with my boyfriend and showing him around my home town of Glasgow. All this excitement mixed with two trans-Atlantic flights has left me exhausted.

 

Of course after my crazy run-in with fog and delays on the way out to the UK before Christmas I was hoping that my flights home would be allot less stressful. Despite the 5am check-in time and the 7 hour lay-over in Heathrow airport, which is probably the worst airport ever conceived, all went according to plan and I found myself sailing through customs and standing at the baggage claim area where my rucksack would soon appear and I waited. Then I waited some more and some more until finally my flight number disappeared from the board and my heart sank. My bag wasn’t there- bad news. I dragged myself over to the enquiry desk and was informed that during the seven hours I spent in Heathrow, the airport hadn’t managed to move my bag from one plane to another and it had been left in London. So I filled out a sheaf of forms detailing my contact addressee and description of the bag and was told it would probably be delivered in a couple of days. After handing my forms to the customs officer I was allowed to leave the airport and tiredly stumbled into a taxi that would take me to campus.

 

Once I got to campus my need for food overtook my need for sleep and I went with my flatmate and a few friends to Oasis, the on campus diner for some much needed nourishment. It was really nice to hang out with people I had missed over the past two weeks and hear all about their holiday experiences from staying to rustic cabins in the woods, to taking a twenty-two hour train journey to Nova Scotia, to just heading an hour down the road to hang out with their family. At nine o’clock with food in my stomach I bid my friends goodnight and headed back to my room to crash, there was only one day to rest before classes began all over again.