A year in Canada....

In the Middle of exams!

mattsincanada — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:41:45 +0000

Its now the first Friday of exam period. I’ve got two out of the way already and have two more to come. Thankfully the next one isn’t until Wednesday! The last few weeks has been really hectic with final design report writing and all the assignments coming at the end of term. There hasn’t really been time to think about leaving. I’ve got very used to being here now and it will be sad to leave everyone and everything behind. The caf, my room, the annoying queues to use the printers at Irving K (the library), ‘Silent Hours’,the superb backdrop when you look at the horizon and see snow capped mountains! I could keep on going……but I should probably revise, I think I’ve done well so far at avoiding it by updating this blog!

QE Park and Spring Formal

mattsincanada — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:32:54 +0000

We went to a place called Queen Elizabeth Park, it had a biodome/conservatory with parrots and tropical flowers. The views of Vancouver from the park were really amazing. We tripped back to broadway in the afternoon to get pancakes at Red Truck bar, then returned to the park in the afternoon to play pitch and putt, I was pretty happy with my second place overall! There was also the spring formal, which was pretty much the same as the winter formal, a few weekends ago. There was no alcohol with the meal so instead we went to Mahoney’s afterwards and stayed there till about 11

A Second Trip to Whistler

mattsincanada — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:22:49 +0000

Its been a long time since I’ve updated, so here is a bit of a catch up…..I went to Whistler again, cos it was sooo amazing the first time. Except this time we did the journey from Vancouver and back in one day, with a nice early start at 6am for the bus. By the time we sorted rentals it was 9, and the line-ups (sorry I mean queues, I’m picking up the lingo now…) were huge to go up the mountain. It was the Sunday of the long Easter weekend so we should have expected it I suppose! The weather and the snow were both superb. We spent most of the day skiing, well I did, all the others were snowboarding! Ben got his toe binding stolen when we went for lunch (very annoying) so I was left to explore on my own for the second half of the afternoon. By the end of the day my face was bright red from sunburn, which took almost a week to go white again (no brown in-between!)

Whistler and Cross Country Skiing

mattsincanada — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:04:47 +0000

We managed to make it up to Whistler, the host resort for the snow based events for Vancouver 2010, before the Olympics finished. We got tickets to see the women’s 4x5km cross country relay. It happened at the cross country ski area, near Whistler. We had to get a 45min shuttle from the village up to the cross country ski park. The relay was won by Norway, with Germany second and Finland third. When we got back to Whistler they were playing a replay of the finish, and we spotted ourselves in the background……officially famous! We then watched the women’s ice hockey gold medal game on TV in the afternoon and rented gear ready for skiing the next day. We also saw a live TV interview of the Canadian Women’s two man bob-sleigh gold medallists from a few days before (that’s who are in the Canada jackets in the pictures).

For the Friday we got “Fresh Tracks” tickets, so we could go up early, get an all you can eat breakfast then be the first to use the runs. We started skiing about 9am, and the snow was perfect and untouched. Later in the day we took the peak 2 peak gondola (longest unsupported stretch in the world…1.38miles – pretty impressive views!) across to Blackcomb mountain, and did some runs over there, before coming back across and down into Whistler, and heading back home. The powder at the top of Blackcomb was really deep and the mountain was deserted, all in all amazing for skiing!

Ski Trip!

mattsincanada — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:27:10 +0000

For most of the term a group of us have been planning a ski trip to one of the smaller resorts, called Hemlock. We travelled over to a friend’s house last Sunday night (after picking up rentals on the way), then drove to the mountain the next morning. We arrived just before lunch, dropped our stuff and went onto the mountain straight away to get some skiing in for the afternoon. The runs were really good, with quite a lot of fresh snow from that morning. It also snowed a bit while we were there the first day. The ski lifts closed at 3.30 everyday, so we had plenty of time in evening to take advantage of the nice studio style chalet we were staying in, and the free HOT TUB just outside! We ended up spending every evening sat in there for at least two hours having a nice relaxing beer or two! The weather on Monday and Wednesday for skiing was really nice, with perfect sunshine. Tuesday was not so nice as it was overcast and kept sleeting and hailing on and off all day. I also swapped equipment one afternoon and tried out snowboarding for a couple of hours, and it was pretty fun…..well I could only stop and turn one direction but not bad for an afternoon By the end of the trip I was skiing down the blue runs without any problems, so all in all it was pretty successful. Also there was the Canadian ski cross team training there for most of the week, but we only found out who they were the day before we left!

Opening Ceremony!

mattsincanada — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:12:48 +0000

After seeing the torch on Thursday the excitement was really starting to build for the opening ceremony. For the duration of the olympics a big screen has been setup in Yaletown to go and watch the olypmic action live. This is where we headed first to try and see the opening ceremony. However we arrived just after it started, and there was a two block line-up. So instead we went to Robson square, where there we multiple screens and a projected screen on the side of Sears. We stayed and watched from there until near the end, where the flame left the stadium to go and light the official torch across the other side of downtown, near Canada Place and waterfront. The flame was carried by Wayne Gretsky (a famous Canadian hockey player I think) on the back of a truck covered in olympic sponsors. As the pictures were being shown live, everyone realised that it was passing a block away from Robson square where we were watching, so the whole crowd ran to see it go past. Then everyone ran after the flame, following it all the way to waterfront, across the city. The traffic was forced to stop to let all of the people running in the middle of the street to go past. We eventually made it down to waterfront where we saw the flame lit and then a massive firework display. The atmosphere was amazing with everyone having just run across the city and then watching the firework display. Here are some photos to have a look at, I will try and post some more from my friends when I get hold of them!

Olympic Torch Relay Comes Through Campus

mattsincanada — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:54:04 +0000

It’s now the middle weekend of the Vancouver 2010 olympic games, and I finally have some free time to update my blog!! The olympic torch came through UBC on Thursday 11th February at about 6.10pm. About 10,000 students (according to the student newspaper) attended the event lining up along the route. There were student stalls and a stage set up along University Boulevard near the route. It was pretty difficult to get a good picture of the flame with the number of people who were there, and it didn’t help that it was throwing it down with rain. However I did get one dark and slightly blurry picture, but you can just about make it out!

Flying Home for Christmas (and what I’ve been up to until now)

mattsincanada — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:45:39 +0000

It is now the evening before I fly home for Christmas….can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. Classes finished on 4th December after which was the two week exam period. I had three exams on 10th, 14th and 17th. I found the exams very difficult, despite thinking I knew the material, but wait and see about the results (they come out very soon!) Having not updated for ages, a lot of the things I have been doing have been missed off, so here’s a quick summary…

Skiing on Grouse – We finally went back up to Grouse skiing! The trip was really good fun. I had a lesson to start off, cos I thought I would be rubbish after only having gone skiing once five years ago, but it came back to me really quickly! Unfortunately it was pretty early season when we went so the long green run (easy one) wasn’t open. I went down one of the blue runs, but it was pretty steep and a fell over twice on the way down. We left soon afterwards cos the weather was pretty bad (you could see about 20m in front of you and it was raining). Still had a great toime though.

Scottish Ceilidh – I also went with a group of people to a local scottish Ceilidh, you can’t escape it even in Canada! The photos pretty much explain what happened there!

Sunset on Wreck beach – The weather during exam period was really clear and there were some really nice sunsets. One evening we went down to Wreck beach (the local nudist beach! – but everyone was wearing clothes cos it was about 3 degrees C) to take some photos.

Most of the rest of the time has been studying We were going to go skiing up to Cypress mountain last Sunday, but the weather was rubbish (it was raining) so we decided to wait until next term. There is a trip to Whistler in the pipeline for the first weekend back, which I can’t wait for (that’s where the olympic games are being held in February). So until I get back in January, Merry Christmas!!!

TFL and Christmas Formal

mattsincanada — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:45:26 +0000

Last saturday was the final of the Totem Football League (TFL) between Shu 3/4 (that’s my team) and Kwak 5. The battle was scheduled for midday. And three guesses what the weather was like…….yep, cold and raining!!! We started confident after being unbeaten all season, but it didn’t last. The Kwak team scored three touchdowns in the first half, which kind of killed the game. I think they knew our tactics, and they were bigger and quicker than most of us! But we didn’t conceed in the second half, so that kinda made up for it. Later on in the evening was the Totm Park Christmas formal, basically a christmas dinner with all the trimmings. The food was really good, but we did have to wait 45minutes in line to get it. Everyone wa dressed in formal suits and dresses, it was kinda like being back in Durham!

Snow on Grouse

mattsincanada — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:02:16 +0000

Once again I haven’t updated my blog till a week and half after the event (sorry folks)……I hate lab reports….Anyway the weekend before last we went up Grouse Mountain (the same one where I did the Grouse grind). Except this time the trail was closed as it was too icy to climb, and there was about 3 feet of snow at the top!!!! When we go up there about 4pm it was -2 and there was snow everywhere. The ski resort bit had just opened so we had to share the Gondola up with people kitted out for evening skiing! But there was only one ski lift open, and we hadn’t planned to go skiing, so we went skating on the frozen lake and in search of the bears once again (the same ones as I saw last time). Except that this time it was like trekking over a snow covered wilderness, and really cold. When we eventually got there the bears were nowhere to be seen, so we had to trek back to the lodge in the middle of the snowstorm which had just started! We then had the inevitable snow ball fight. We left to go back down about 8pm. We went for a curry on the way back to campus, and got back about half 10. All in all in was great fun, and I haven’t seen that much snow in ages! Were hoping to go back up and go skiing soon, as all the runs are open now. I took some pictures, but most were fairly blurry due to the snow storm we were stood in the middle of (and partly because of my poor camera skills)! Enjoy!

PNE Fright Night

mattsincanada — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:22:24 +0000

Halloween is pretty big over here, everyone dresses up during the day and in the evening, so saw quite a few witches and pirates on my way to lectures last Friday! To celebrate me, Ali and a few other international students went to a PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) Fright Night. They basically take over a theme park and cover it in everyhthing to do with halloween. There were four haunted houses (we managed to get round thenm all) and loads of good rollercoasters and other stuff. There were also people wandering round dressed up in halloween costume specifically there to follow you around and scare you! In true Vancouver style it rained the whole time so we got pretty wet, but still had a good time! Have to go and do some work now…..have two midterms and a report due early next week. On the plu side I just got a prsenetation out the way today which has made me feel a whole lot better! Hoping I’ll get away from campus weekend after next, and I will try and keep this blog a bit more up to date from now on!

Seattle 23rd-25th Oct!!!

mattsincanada — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:11:33 +0000

Sorry everyone, it’s been so long since I’ve posted on here! Just thought I would let you all know about my trip to seattle. We left Vancouver in the rain on Friday afternoon (that’s me, Ali (an australian – Raymond’s friend) and Raymond (another australian I took a taxi with from the airport on the first day)). We eventually caught the Greyhound bus (it was almost an hour late), stopping at the US border on the way, where I had to pay $6 to get a visa waiver so I could enter America. As we approached Seattle in the dark it looked amazing all lit up, with the space needle and high rises dominating the skyline. The hostel (called City Hostel) we were staying at was really nice and central, on 2nd avenue near the bars.

On saturday we went to the space needle first (the big tower in Seattle – see pictures below), then sci fi museum, experience music project (they had a simulated stage with instruments and an audience where you could play a “live” one night only set – the poster of us playing looked ace!) and science world. We thn went for a ride on the monorail into downtown and to the cheesecake factory. It was probably the best cheesecake I’ve ever tasted (we had blueberry and white chocolate and cookie dough to share between three of us!). We then went to eat dinner in the revolving resteraunt at the top of the space needle. It was a bit pricey but the service was really good, and we had an ever changing view of Seattle by night, so it was well worth it. We stopped at a local bar on the way back and absorbed some of the Seattle night life before collapsing about midnight in bed.

On sunday we did the aquarium in the morning, including feeding the giant octopus! We then went around the famous pike place market, with the fish throwing stall (apparently a famous place where they throw the fish around – we only saw them throwing crabs tho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNDP9jLuzXU&feature=related?!). We then went on a harbour cruise and to “Ye Olde Curiosity Shop”. We took the train home about 7 in evening, arriving back at UBC about 12 (after waiting in line in the rain (yes it was raining when we got back to vancouver aswell!!)). Take at look at some of the pics!

VOC Longhike

mattsincanada — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:37:37 +0000

It’s now thanksgiving weekend, so most people have gone home to have the traditional family dinner with all the trimmings. But as I can’t go home, I went on the Varsity outdoor club’s longhike instead. It basically involved a group of 150 people travelling up to a place called Evans Lake, near Squamish, to go either hiking or climbing for the weekend, then have a big party . I went hiking to a place called Red Heather and then along a ridge towards Elfin Lake. There was a group of 6 of us who drove up to the start of the walk (up a dirt track for about 20 minutes). We took the walk at a fairly leisurely pace, and it didn’t take long before we were walking through SNOW!! Apparently in winter there is about 10 feet of it where we were walking and its a popular area for back country skiing! The walk took till about 3 in the afternoon. We then drove back to Evans Lake, where we went canoeing on the lake before having dinner. The party started later in the eve, with a DJ and games such as crawling round a table without touching the floor?!? Thankfully I managed to get a bed in one of the cabins at the camp, so slept pretty well. Our ride left on Saturday night so we had to greyhound bus it back Sunday morning, which took ages cos there was an accident on the sea to sky highway :( I’ve put some photos below for more viewing pleasure (again the camera doesn’t really do the view justice!) I’m now catchin up with work and looking forward to the thanksgiving dinner taking place this evening in Shuswap (lectures are cancelled today cos its a national holiday woo hoo)!

Grouse Grind

mattsincanada — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:36:02 +0000

Went to do the Grouse Grind yesterday. It is basically a really steep ascent up Grouse Mountain which overlooks Vancouver and Vancouver island. Apparently about 100,000 people do it every year! It is called a ‘Grind’ because, as I can testify, it goes on FOREVER!!! There are just more and more and more steps gettin steeper and steeper. A group of five of us did it, organised by the residence advisors downstairs. It took about 2 hours to get there by public transport (all free…..WOO HOO go UPASS!). It involved taking the seabus (its exactly what it sounds like – a bus on water – very cool and very efficient!), skytrain (it’s spose to go in the sky but it was more like a brand new London Underground!), regular bus and gondola (that was only for the way down!). The hike up too us just under an hour……but it felt like 3! There was a leader board for the best times, I think the record was around 25 minutes…..nutters!

The view from the top was well worth it tho (the pictures don’t really do it justice), you could see all the way over to Vancouver island. The mountain top is normally part of a small ski resort in winter, but no snow there yet (that will come in bout a months time). However there were deer and 2 GRIZZILIES up the top! They were orphaned cubs in an enclosure but still pretty impressive (see photos – especially the size of the claws!!). We ate lunch up the top then came back down on the gondola for the public transport marathon home. Hope y’all enjoy the pics!!

Colour Wars and Homecoming

mattsincanada — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:16:54 +0000

Last weekend was totem park colour wars and homecoming weekend. Basically there are six houses in totem park, each with their own colour. So we all dressed in Red (that’s my house colour) and taunted the other houses with our classic cheer “We’re Shu, we’re red, we’re better than you in bed!” The games included water balloon volleyball with bedsheets, mass dodgeball and tug-of-war. And the best bit……our house won!!! Woo house champions for the third year running!

Last weekend was alos homecoming for the UBC thunderbirds Canadian football team (apparently its the same as american football but they have three downs instead of four, and they call more “fouls”!). Unfortunately it was a pretty slow game and we left at half time, very sunburnt. I never found out if they won…..

First Few Weeks..

mattsincanada — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:53:49 +0000

This is the first instalment of my life in Canada (I know its a bit late but hey…..better late than never!!). Been here for almost a month now and its gone really fast! First week was internationals orientation, met people from Australia, Singapore, UCL, Brazil, India, Ireland etc etc. There was a lot of them! Also went ice skating and didn’t fall over, a definite first! OO and went to a place called Stanley Park, basically a massive green space jus 5 minutes from downtown, it was pretty damn impressive! After that first weeks have mainly consisted of parties at weekends and work during the week. Everyone here is pretty committed to working until Friday comes round! I live in Totem Park residence, in a house called Shuswap (its after the one of the first nations tribes) and our house colour is red (more about that later)!! Food is ok but expensive, like a lot of other stuff including the alcohol! The photos are of the flagpole plaza at the top of campus (the “money shot” at UBC), my room and Stanley Park.