I catch up ... a two week review :)

It's time to catch up ... and still I have lots to tell you ...

Monday two weeks ago, I had almost finished my report. On Tuesday, Melanie invited me for a Theatre play downtown. I went there with Mark, and we also met some friends of Melanie. The play's name was "Blithe Spirit" and all the actors were students of the University of Winnipeg. The spoken language was British English ... quite funny for us here surounded by American English. And that's what the play was about:

Blithe Spirit is a witty comedy which looks at the marital mess created when a novelist conducts a séance to research his next novel, and accidentally revives the ghost of his first wife! Featuring some of Noel Coward's most memorable characters and sparkling dialogue, the play laughs at the foibles and feckless behaviour of the British middle class in the 1930's. A spirited comedy sure to delight.

The actors played really well, at the beginnings I had some problems understanding the languagge; however, I would say I finally understood most of the story. In the theatre there was also kind of a funny guy ... his laughter was so loud and weird, that we usually had to laugh about the play and this viewer as well.

The following Wednesday I watched some documentaries with my roommates. On TLC (a TV channel) you can watch documentaries all day. I got amused by the titles of their documentaries, even if the stories talk about sad circumstances: "Honey, we're killing our kids", "The man whose arm exploded", "The 700 pound man", "Little people, Big World", "Part 1: Born without a face", "Part 2: The Facemakers" ... the topics are sometimes focused on US issues; however, the documentaries are not as shallowbrained as I had expected. Feel free to watch some documentaries online ...

On Thursday and Friday I had two movie nights at my house. On Thursday Melanie was my guest, I cooked some "Älpler Macaroni" (traditional Swiss dish with pasta, potatoes, cheese, onions and also apple puree) ... later on we watched two movies ... "City of God" and "Paradise Now". During the movie I remembered that I already saw "City of God" a couple of years ago in the movies ... yet I didn't know the English title (original title: Cicade de Deus) that's why I wasn't able to recognize the movie. This movie talks about the suburbs of Rio (Brazil), where kids grow up dealing with drugs ... in an environment of permanent violence. A good but violent movie. Paradise Now tells the story of two guys in Palestine who see their destiny in suicide bombing ... the probably last hours of their life, and their appearing doubts ... Then on Friday, I invited some friends of university ... Yui, Olivier, Khizar and Mark came over for dinner ... this time I tried Risotto, yet the meal was awful (I don't know why, last time I tried it ... it worked out pretty well ... I was also not very satisfied by my Swiss dish the night before ... it seemed this was not my cooking week). By the way, I found out that the Schneider's Oktoberfest Sausages are pretty good ... :) This night we saw two German movies Good Bye Lenin and The Experiment and later on the French movie Monsieur Ibrahim. All pretty good movies ...!

Preparing dinner with Olivier (thanks Khizar for the pics)

Alain made garlic bread

BBQ (including burnt sausages)

Dinner time

Our photographer Khizar :)

On Saturday we celebrated Shinya's birthday at Korean restaurant downtown, Mark and I were making a gag ... actually, we were looking forward to wear a tuxedo and to colour our hairs grey ... yet finally, we just ended wearing a tuxedo (the coloured hair would be fine for a pub, yet not really convenient for a formal dinner at a restaurant :)). However, our friends were surprised by our appearance ...

Two beautiful guys *smile*

And for I think nobody ever saw me in Switzerland in a Tuxedo ... I offer one picture more ... *smile* (for more pictures check my gallery).

Bonus picture ;)

Our night finally ended in the United Taverne ... that was a really great Saturday!

The next day I met a couple that would like to join my NY-Trip. We met at Dairy Queen, had ice cream and talked about the trip ... both seemed to be pretty interested, yet they couldn't confirm ... I really hoped I would get their acceptance soon ...

Then already my last week of university began. The weather got warmer, there was no snow anymore ... and on Monday it was a good time for a longer run. I felt energetic that's why I was looking for a longer run ... I ran along the river and saw beautiful living areas, and I also found a lovely place along the river. There is an old bridge (beautiful at sunset), a lovely neighborhood, and an ice cream parlor selling probably the best ice cream in town (according to their ad, yet the ice cream is good, I agree).

The old bridge

The Bridge Drive In ... I haven't tried the shake yet ... mmhhh

The Bridge Drive In is at Jubilee Ave. ... cross the bridge,
and you'll see the lovely neighborhood!

After 2 hours and a run of approx. 19 km I was exhausted, yet I really enjoyed this lovely day in early spring. And I had also a good fealing, now I think I should be able to run the half marathon ... actually, I'm surprised about myself, in Switzerland I used to run for 8 km and I was pretty tired afterwards. I haven't found out yet, what makes the difference here.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had to prepare for my exam on following Thursday. Thursday night I went out with Mark ... we enjoyed Vietnamese dinner (the food was great, I love it) and later on we had ice cream at the Bride drive in.

Friday was already my last day of university, yes my last day of university in Canada (with the exception of final exams) ... unbelievable ... this 24 weeks of school went over so fast, I can still not believe it. In the afternoon I went to the car shop in order to do an oil change. At night I met Christine and Mark for badminton ... unfortunately, the gym was already closed (because of final exams) and thus we went for a run in the basement of the gym and ended playing Ping-Pong what was amusing. Later on, we met Yui, Brian, Shinya, Khizar and some other guys for watching movies. We saw the end of a Thai horror movie (or more a thriller to me, was good) and a scaring French horror movie (someone kills an entire family at a house on the french countryside). Afterwards, everybody was so agitated that we had to watch a comedy to calm down.

On Saturday, I had to go back to the repair shop ... I had a loose contact on the signal light ... only to find out that I had to go back on Monday (grrr!). I studied a bit, and at night I was invited by Stephen to the Empire. We also spent some time in the Salsa room ... watching the people dancing was amazing ... that's why I got the idea to take Salsa classes. Thus, I already conviced Mark and some of my roommates ... next Tuesday we will attend our first Salsa class :)

Sunday I spent most of the time studying for my first final exam on Monday. Around 6 pm I felt like making a break ... and I called some friends, unfortunately nobody was able to join. I went to have a look at the floodway ... all the snow melted in the last days, so the river reached a high level and the floodway prevents now the city of beeing flooded. It was also nice to hike in the nature and to enjoy the sound of water, singing birds, ... (I didn't do that for a long time)

The Red River Dam

Flat countryside

The Red River Floodway

Where the Floodway (left) and the Red River (right) splits

Dead end

Flooded countryside