My torrential love affaire with Walter

A long time ago, I mentioned something about an epic love affaire with Walter (see my awesome ping pong career). I figured it's long overdue that I explain myself.

Following my very tragic accident, I figured there had to be some good that came out of it and I was right. I met Walter the day following the incident.

Meet Walter. 

Walter had a twin that followed him EVERYWHERE but I was pretty loyal. I took pictures with him, we went for walks together and he was even my date at the Christmas semi-formal!! We slow danced and everything. Walter was awesome because he never tried to cop a feel or to move too fast. He was always very respectful of me. He helped me up the stairs, into the car, was always by my side in the morning when I woke up... A perfect gentleman. He did however give me a weird rash in my armpit... 

For the first month, his twin followed us around all the time, but when the second month of our romance started, he went and hid in the closet, so it was truly only Walter and I. However, by the end of that second month, things between Walter and I went downhill. He started feeling like I was neglecting him, that I didn't need him in my life anymore. I tried to talk to him, but he eventually went and hid in the closet with his twin, never to be seen again. Needless to say, I was upset. But thankfully, I had my other boyfriend to cheer me up. 

Soon to be 13 years and still going strong.
It's probably forever.
Like a fairytale.
That's totally reality, right?
I'm normal, I swear. 

And I'm back!!

Why, hello there!! I know it’s been awhile since my last post, but I have been super extremely busy!! Here’s what I’ve been doing:

-          Completed a 30 day yoga challenge in November

My sanctuary

-          Got sick, twice.

o   The first time was a cold.

Meet the Norwalk virus. Those
little suckers invaded my gastric track
for a week!

o   The second time, the Norwalk virus. If you don’t know what that is, it’s severe diarrhea/vomiting for a few days. I barely ate or drank in 5 days and yet, I was always running to the washroom. I called home one morning, at 4:30am Alberta time (7:30am NB time), crying to my mom: “Mom, what’s wrong with me??”

-          Went home for Christmas to spend time with my family and friends.

Modifier la photo de profil

We were laughing at absolutely nothing.
We're cool like that. 

I've found it was just easier to invest into
two yoga mats. I sweat like a there's no tomorrow
so I need to wait a day before my mat to dry out!!

-          In the process of completing my second 30 day yoga challenge, which I am extending to a 60 day yoga challenge.

o   I go 5-6 times a week anyways when I’m not doing a challenge, so it’s not like it’s a dramatic change in my lifestyle.

-          Trained for my first ever (but not last) half-marathon that’s coming up on February 9^th.

o   My running group actually did 21.7k (a half is 21.1k) on Sunday at a slow pace. It took us 2h22min at a slow pace so my goal of completing my half on race day in less than 2h20min is completely plausible!!

Feb 9th, 2013. Watch out!! 

-          Tutored 2 students in math

o   One in 11^th grade, she ACED her final exam. I’m so proud of her!!!

Made the mistake of showing him this.
I now have to specify "Find the NUMERICAL
value of x." EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

o   One 9^th grader, who is an on-going student since the course is yearlong. He also likes to sass me, little bugger!!

-          Doing kickboxing twice a week.

o   One of the instructors told me to join the intermediate class…I laughed.

Cuz I'd totally win if I someone would sneak up on me
in a back alley. NOT. 

I may sound a little crazy, but those who know me know that I only function when I am a busy bee. And by joining a yoga studio, a kickboxing gym  and a running group, I’ve been able to meet a lot of incredible new people in this new city!

10 facts about Calgary as perceived by yours truly

So I've been in my new humble abode for a little over a month and I'm still getting my bearings. However, I've learned a few things about Calgary.

Deerfoot, on a Saturday afternoon. 

1. Never be in a rush to get anywhere. I live in the south end of the city and so, if I want to get anywhere, I pretty much have to take this one highway, called Deerfoot Trail. On weekends, it looks like your basic highway. On weekdays, during rush hour, it's a bloodbath of who can fit in the free space between cars first. The speed limit might be 100km/h, but don't expect to go over 20km/h on a weekday morning. Btw, rush hour starts at 6:30am. No traffic, it takes me 30 min to get to work. With traffic, over 45 min. That means I'm out the door by 7am. Good thing I'm a morning person!

 2. Gorgeous sunsets. I'm a sunset addict and boy do I get my fill here! There's almost always a little bit of clouds so the colours are amazing!

Not quite sunset, but beautiful all the same!

3. Don't expect to have a yard. Or off street parking for that matter. Basically, there is space for one person wide between houses. Most people end up parking on the street or, if you live in the right neighbourhood, you have a dirt road that passes behind two rows of houses and you can park behind your house. Like my house (well, my landlord's house).

4. Cats like to hide beneath patios and stalk you. Ok, this might not be a Calgary thing. It might just be a my apartment thing. Still, it never happened to me back in Fredericton. I also didn't have a cat in Fredericton, so that may be why.

5. No front licence plate. You got me, this is an Alberta thing, not a Calgary thing. Still, I'm teaching Calgarian a lesson in French Canadian history. Not that they are particularly clueless. I just like flashing my acadian roots whenever I can. 

Yup, this is on the front of my car baby!

That's right, you better not moose with me!

6. I still love moose, despite being in horse/cow country. It should not be a surprise that BC, my boyfriend, followed me to Calgary. Before you freakout, I don't actually have a romantic relationship with an inanimate object. We've just been sleeping together for the past 12 years, no biggy.

Isn't he just a cutie? Who couldn't love him?

7. Apparently, habs fans exist here too. Two words: Oh joy... 

8. Dark clouds rush in real quick. 

And can bring hail. Golfball size hail. Hopefully
my car will never have to suffer a bashing at hail's expense. 

Not too visible on this day. 

 9. Rockies. You can pretty much see the Rockies from anywhere. Depending on the air quality, they are more visible or not.

















10. This city is so freaking huge that there's a surprise at every corner!
I found this amazing path about a ten minute walk from my place that follows the Bow River. And here I was thinking there wasn't enough green space in this city!

Unlike the St. John River, this water looks clean. 

Meet Alaphonso (my phone autocorrected his name to Also hobos. This happened
when I was texting my friend Bernando, who is obsess with hobos. Coincidence, I think not)
Basically, we had a torrential love affair that lasted about 10 seconds.
Bet you're freaked out now, what with me having a moose boyfriend
and cheating on him with a garden snake.   

On an unrelated subject, I bought new shoes.

Till next time!

I'm still alive, I swear!

I am still alive, even though my lack of blog posts seem to indicate otherwise. I'd like to say my inactivity in the blogosphere is due to my activity in the real life-o-sphere. Sadly, I can't. Since my last post, I've done a lot of knitting, a whack of sitting around, some kickboxing and, oh, I climb a 9000 feet mountain.

Fairview Mountain. Yup, I climbed that. 

View from the top.

Such an amazing view!

Gorgeous!

See, I was really there!!

I guess the biggest highlight of the past week would be that today, I officially started my career as a teacher! Honestly, it was a little anticlimactic since all I did was a lot of hovering around and attending a meeting with my school board. I say hovering because with my contract, I'm more of a full time sub than a full time teacher so although I reported to my homeschool today, I had no prep or anything to do.  But I met some maritimers (for those who don't know, maritimers are from either New Brunswick, PEI or Nova Scotia) at the school board meeting which was great, because I don't actually know anyone here in Calgary and it's always great to see some people from back home. Sorry for the lameness of this post, I'll work on making things more interesting in the future!

Sometimes google baffles me

So a few years back, I decided to google "platypus". Why? I have absolutely no idea. Probably due to some random conversation I had with my friends. Now, before you start wondering, I do know what a platypus is.

This is a platypus.

Ok, that image came up when I google "platypus" today. However, 4-5 years ago, here's what came up as the first image of my search:

Is it a Pear or a Bearguin?

Isn't that just the saddest, most depressing looking "animal" you've ever seen? I also find it terribly cute and I wish it were a real animal so I could have one. It's so gosh darn CUTE!! But clearly someone wasn't thinking straight at Google that day.

Also, you gotta love the ingenuity of Google. Try writing "askew" in the search bar. What's your reaction?

PS: Scientists should totally consider crossing a bear with a penguin. I'd buy one.

GHABAHSHALALALA!!!

Since I've been in Calgary for almost two weeks now, I decided I was long overdue for a trip to the Rockies. Considering it's one of the main reasons I decided to come to Calgary (that and the fact that I have a job helps too), I think it's a wonder I hadn't been there already.  

I was kind of angry that there was somewhat traffic on the road because I had to focus on not crashing and not on the Rockies. Urgh!!

Now, on a good clear day, you can see the Rockies from Calgary, depending on where you are in the city. However, since I've been here, it's been mostly smoggy so I hadn't seen the mountains much. Which means I was even more excited to be seeing them for the whole hour and a half the trip lasted.

OMG!! I see some mountains far, far away in the distance!!

Oh, they're looking bigger! 

Getting closer...

Closer...

CLOSER...!!!

GAH!!! I'm at the foothill of the ROCKIES!!!! SO EXCITED!!!

 And then I arrived in Banff National Park, where I bought an annual pass because you know I'll be going there, oh, every weekend...or more. I'm going to become a hiking machine!! Well, that is, if I can find some hiking buddies. Because you don't go hiking alone. Remember that kids. It's not safe. Even more so in bear country.

So in Banff National Park, you can find the town of Banff. 

This wasn't my first time in Banff. Twelve years ago, my family and I left Fredericton, drove all the way to Victoria, BC, dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean and drove back home. Along the way, we had many stops, Banff being one of them. So this quaint little town is at the foot of Cascade Mountain, which you can see from pretty much anywhere in town. So we're talking a big mountain here. The kind that has little patched of snow on top all year long. But somehow, during our stay, my mom, my brother and I decided to nickname it our pebble. That's right. This big huge chunk of rock will forever be known to us as Our Pebble.

Cascade Mounain. Also known as The Pebble.

 The nice thing about the Town of Banff is that it has a lot of shops. Little shops that seem random. Like a shop from this little company located on PEI. Which is kind of funny because PEI seems to be awfully protective of their company and only have a handful of shops located off the Island. One of which is somehow in Banff!

If you hadn't guessed it yet, I'm talking about Cow's!

For those who don't know, Cow's is known for 2 things:
1. Their ice cream, once voted the world's best ice cream
2. Their goofy shirts that make parodies of popular social things
e.g. Mootube, Finding Nemoo, MooMoo Lemon,...

Of course, Banff is all about the moose. I still haven't seen a real one.
Why does nature hate me? 

I didn't actually try out this place. I just loved the name. 

They even named a street. Seriously??

 So first thing I did when I got to town was to go to the information centre to ask about hiking trails that are safe for solo people. He showed me a map and he said that there was this super popular trail that started near the town. So instead of driving to the trail, I decided to walk, because it seemed close. Turns out the start of the trail was located halfway up the mountain and there was on site parking. Too bad I only realized this once I got there. So I ended up walking an extra 2km to get to the trail. And it was an uphill 2k. I now had another uphill 2k to do if I wanted to get to the top of the hill. Me = feeling kinda dumb at this point.

I was relieved yet pissed to see this sign at the mouth of the trail. 

I'm relatively in shape. I jog and I do kickboxing. I make sure I work my cardio and I also walk everywhere.  Somehow, that didn't matter here. It took about 2 seconds and I was completely out of breath. And I stayed out of breath until reached the top of the mountain, about 45min later.

The view a little way up. 

That is one BIG hotel. It also probably costs a fortune to stay there. 

The view from the other side of the mountain. Golf anyone?

Another mountain. I am in a mountain chain after all. There's going to be
lots of those. 

At the top!!

Proof that I was there!!!

That is one steep trail.  

Yup, that's right. I climbed that. 

Leaving the Rockies...for now.

I think it's pretty obvious that I had a dreadful day. I hated every moment of it. Bahahaha!! Can't wait till my next encounter with the Rockies!!