Reading Week Trip

Hmm ... it's already 3 o'clock in the morning, but I still feel like updating my blog, even if should stay in bed already. Let's start ...

That's actually really exciting, for the reading week I will go to Banff. Banff is a famous ski resort (looks to me like Switzerland *smile*), located in a national park close to Calgary (that's about a 20 or more hours bus trip from Winnipeg!!!). Sylvain (the French guy) will join for the trip; together and with many other students we will have a great time in Banff. And it's only two weeks from now. Let me give some more information:

You are invited to experience some great skiing/riding on our 4th annual Banff University trip. Based on trips during the March school break, this is for those 18+ who may wish to take in some of the great nightlife that Banff has to offer, but still get to the hill close to opening time. Costs are kept low through group discounts on lift tickets and the use of Rundle United Church in Banff for accommodation and meals. (sleeping bag and air mattress required) Both sunshine and Lake Louise offer a wide variety of terrain from easy beginner slopes to awesome double black runs, glade skiing and snowboard parks. Also included is one day to Kicking Horse in Golden, B.C.

Agenda: Feb 10th – Depart Winnipeg Friday evening via private video-equipped motorcoach. Arrive in Banff about noon on Saturday. Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs. - 4 awesome days at sunshine, Louise, and Kicking Horse. Tuesday – optional day to ski/ride (cost $50.00) or shop, sightsee, and rest. Thurs. evening – Depart Banff – arrive back in Winnipeg about 1 P.M. Feb 17th.

Cost for the bus, 4 lift tkts, meals, accommodation, and admissions to the Banff Centre/Banff Hot Springs - $515.00. Not included – Breakfast to/from Banff, drinks on the bus, evening entertainment, and ski/snowboard rental (about $95.00), if required. A $115.00 deposit is required on booking and the balance by Jan. 23rd. If your plans change, refunds will be given until Jan 5th.

Are you also interested in, there is still space available. Please let me know, I will give you all information you need. Now I should get serious for another two weeks, I have to write 4 exams and then let's have a week of fun!

Now back to my week review ... on Monday we had an amazing warm day ... Sunday up to -29°C. and one day later +3°C. ... that's crazy, I couldn't believe it ... when I got home after school it was raining instead of snowing!!!

On Tuesday I had to clean my car, for it smelt bad ... the problem is that the carpet is wet and cannot dry, for my car is all the time outside (it's usually always below zero). With vacuum cleaner, newspaper, and cleaning agents I fighted against bad odors ... it worked out more or less ... it's still not dry, but my car smells good again *smile*

On Wednesday I had one more swimming lesson, it still doesn't work as well ... and I still hope I will improve soon. What was fun, is that most in my class couldn't swim before, for many it was a challenge to dive. So it's suprising to me that they start with crawling and not with breaststroking ("Brustschwimmen").

Thursday, I got lunch with the other guys at Pembina Hall. It's the residence cafeteria, the food is pretty cheap (around 6 bucks a full meal including drink, soup, main meal, salad, and dessert) and still tasty. However, the other guys told me that they feel bored about the food ... I can understand that, if you have to eat there every day. Nonetheless; we decided to have dinner together at Pembina Hall every Tuesday and Thursday ... that's cool!!!

Today (or yesterday Friday), after school I went to a show of a famous US comedian (Rob Corddry, he is a comedian at the daily show of a US broadcast). Unfortunately, I didn't get the most jokes ... was actually weird, everybody around me was laughing ... and I probably looked serious all the time ... Later on, we had an Information Night regarding our trip to Banff. We had the opportunity to get some more information and to meet the people that will join ... I think we are really lucky, the other guys seem to be nice! Afterwards, we bought some stuff for Sylvains room (carpet and curtain) and I also bought something for my room ... it adds a bit of life to my room ...

Green Life for a few bucks (student friendly!!!)

I will be happy to see it blooming ("blühen"), unless I forget to water it ...

Everybody talks about Canada ...

Canada Elections on Swiss TV broadcasts ...

Schweizer Fernsehen: German
Tele Suisse Romande: French
Tele Svizzera Italiana: Italian

(I'm already making free advertisement for Swiss TV broadcasts ... tztztz!!! *smile*)

Time to catch up ...

Oh, I'm still one week behind with my blog entries, it's time to catch up!

Saturday a week ago, I went with Sylvain to watch a hockey game at the MTS-Centre downtown. The Manitoba Moose were playing against Philadelphia - and the Moose won the game 2:0.

Mascot of the Manitoba Moose

The MTS-Centre is something like our "Hallenstadion" in Zurich; it is very modern.

Hockey game in the MTS-Centre

On Sunday I was too tired to play badminton; I preferred to sleep. Later on, I called my parents, did some homework, and spent a relaxing day. On Monday after school it was time for weekly shopping, without that nothing special happened that day. On Tuesday I had school until 11:30, did some homework in the afternoon and at night I went out for a small run. On Wednesday I had my Swimming lesson ... it already works a bit better; nevertheless, I still feel like I don't advance by moving my legs. However, I hope I get out soon on how to work with my feet ;)

On Thursday I did some homework in the afternoon and at night I was invited for watching a movie with my roommate. We saw Lord of War, a movie with Nicolas Cage, who plays the role of an arms dealer in our contemporary world.

Mark invited me for dinner on Friday night, we enjoyed a great Philippinese meal.

The invitees at Marks house

Afterwards we went to university for playing badminton. Later on, we had a warm drink at Starbucks and after we brought Chrissy home, we decided to watch a movie at Cinema City. We saw Wolf Creek, an Australian horror movie. I don't like horror movies; however, I really hated this movie ... I almost left the movies during the performance. Don't watch this movie if you plan to have a road trip in Australia ...!

Yesterday, I was invited for Japanese food; Naomi, another girl (I don't remember her name), and Shinya cooked together Japanese food. We had Sushi and some other Japanese specialities ... it was great! Finally, we ended our night at Karaoke ... and I also found a song that fits my voice ... you will laugh *smile* ... it is: "Love me tender" of Elvis Presley *SWEET* To see some pictures, please click on the follwoing link (thanks to Naomi).

Today I was just too lazy to get out of the house ... I should have a run this afternoon ... yet, I thought it's too cold. We had -19°C., with wind chill it was actually up to -29 °C. ... really too cold for running ... looks like I'm still not a good Canadian!

And tomorrow is ELECTION DAY in Canada, I think that will be a big issue, for the new Canadian prime minister will be elected. According to the polls it looks like a political change will happen ... I'm actually not sure if that is good for Canada. We will see ...

An exciting week ...

Hey guys, I'm sorry ... actually my entries are all delayed. However, I try to keep you updated and I hope you still enjoy my blog. Also feel free to write comments, I really appreciate them!!!

In terms of cold weather, I'm not allowed to complain. Today I read the following lines in the newspaper:

"The recent three-week spell of balmy weather has shatered Winnipeg records, with nighttime temperatures averaging 16.9 degrees warmer than usual for this time of winter.
By comparing intervals other than calendar months, a climatologist has proved for the first time that the 21 days of warm weather since Dec. 22 are the warmest such interval recorded for this time of the year - since records began 134 years ago."

It almost looks like I brought Swiss weather to Winnipeg *smile*.

Monday a week ago, I visited a speech of Paul Rusesabagina. Rusesabagina's story was told by a movie named "Hotel Rwanda", a really good movie that I saw about one year ago in Switzerland. The movie tells the true story of a hotel manager, who was able to save the lives of over 1000 persons during the genocide (in 100 days over 900,000 persons were killed) that was happening in Rwanda in 1994.

On Tuesday I tried to figure out the trip that I would like to do with my parents next summer. I planned to visit the following cities: Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Fredericton, Halifax, Portland, Boston, and finally New York.

Nevertheless, I'm not able to find people in order to continue my roadtrip through the US and also to the West coast of the US ... if you read this lines and you're intersted in doing a road trip next summer (between June and July), please let me know!

On Wednesday I had my first swimming lesson; I would like to improve my strokes (crawling). The lesson was pretty hard; I got out of breath by swimming 25 metres, but I hope that changes soon!

The next day I had to bring my car to a repair shop, for they had to replace a small part. Without that, the car is working fine. I also visited a roommate's friend who fractured his collarbone ("Schlüsselbeinbruch") during his last ski trip. Actually, he seems to be fine also he cannot work for the moment. At night I gave a ride to a French guy to curb ("zügeln") his baggage to his new accommodation. I was wondering because he had 4 pieces of luggage and thus, I don't know how he will be able to travel back to Europe next summer *smile* (for sure it was more than 64 kilos). I also met his roommates, his landlord (one of his roommates) was actually born in London, he is a soccer fan (he also looks like an Englishman) and it is pretty fun to talk to him.

Finally, on Friday I met Sylvain (the french guy mentioned before) for our first grammar lesson (we just work through an English grammar book). Afterwards, I helped him buying a mattress and some other stuff to furnish his new room. In the evenings we were invited by Shinya and Brian for an exciting room party ... a nice way to end a school week!

Fishing Sunday

Last Sunday I planned to join my roommate for fishing. I picked up my friends and together we drove to Selkirk, a small city in the north of Winnipeg, where I also bought my car some month ago.

Trip to Selkirk: Ice Fishing

As we arrived in Selkirk I called my rommate's boyfriend Matt, for he had to show us the way to the river and his fishing shack ("Fischerhütte"). Yet, prior we had to buy some food and we also needed 2 more angling licences.

A Manitoban Fishing licence

After a short drive we arrived at the river; we had to change the car (to a car with four-wheel drive) because it was not possible to drive down to the river with my own car. On the river we saw many small shacks, every shack is equipped with a stove ("Holzofen") and actually, Matt told me that some also have a TV and a couch (sounds like fishing by watching ice hockey and drinking beer *smile*).

Fishing shacks on the Red River

After a short ride we arrived at his shack, well recognizable with a Canadian Flag :)

Matt's fishing shack

After a short introduction on how to fish and how to prepare the bait ("Köder"), everybody got a fishing rod and was ready for fishing. It was nice to stay in the heated shack (instead of fishing outside), yet during the first hour nobody got a fish.

Fishing in the Shack

Fishing hole

Suddenly, after about one hour, a fish floundered ("zappelte") at my fishing line. It was amazing, I caught a big fish!!!


Now everybody was really motivated to catch another fish. Unfortunately that was our only catch for this Sunday. Matt told me that the best time to fish is early in the morning, around 6:30 a.m. ... so probably we should try our luck again a bit earlier in the morning ...

Matt: A nice host and a good fisherman

My roommate Tannis

International Fisher Oranization *smile*

At Sunset it was time already time to return to Winnipeg. For sure it was a super opportunity to know another piece of Canadian culture ... and I really would enjoy to ice fish again!!!

University started again ...

The day after our new year's trip I slept in; in the afternoon I started to clean up my room (I never did some paperwork and so). To celebrate our last day of holiday I met the other students at the Taverne for a free Coke (all soda was free *suprising*) ...

On Tuesday January 3rd, I had my first class. Yet, I overslept ... my class was at 10 o'clock and I woke up at 10:05 ... tztztz ... looks like I went to bed too late! Also there was a time conflict, for I had two courses at the same time! For lunch I met the other students, and in the afternoon I continued cleaning up my room.

On Wednesday I finally was able to attend my classes ... my Organization Theory prof seems to be funny ... and his goal is to prepare us for our future life as strong managers (who knows what I will be one day!). The economics teacher is the same as i had last term, I really like his way of teaching classes. Finally, the Science Mgmt teacher seems to be from India; unfortunately, his intonation makes me feel a bit sleepy. However, I think he is still a good prof and he really looks patient. Also, the learning matter shouldn't be too difficult.

On Thursday I attended my Supply Chain Mgmt class; I still was afraid that I missed the first lesson. However, actually there was no classes on Tuesday (so it was actually fine that I overslept *smile*) ... I was also happy to meet a student, who was also my classmate in International Mgmt. For lunch I met a Canadian student, who I've known from International Mgmt too. If we will find an opportunity, we will probably camp next summer for a few days together ... that would be cool!

On Friday I only had my Economics class. In the afternoon I brought my car to a local car repair shop ... it was time to get a look on my car and also to do the oil change. As they found out, my car works fine, with the exception of a small part that was missing and will cost me around 50 bucks. At night I was playing badminton; later on we had a drink at Shannon's, a pub downtown.

For Saturday, we planned to skate together. We met around three o'clock at the forks to skate together! For I wasn't skating for a long time, I had some difficulties; nonetheless, after a while I adapted well and I had some fun on the ice.

(Thanks to Brian for the picture)

Skating makes hungry; thus, we had dinner at a nearby pub: garlic chease toast, french fries, onion rings, bruschetti, chicken wings ... mmhhh!!! Later on, we met at university for a pool game and we also had some fun with game machines (video games). After midnight, it was already time to go home, for we had some other plans on Sunday: ICE FISHING!!!

New Year's Trip

Finally I update the review of our New Year's Trip! It took me really a long time ...

On Saturday morning (the 31st) I was preparing a small surprise for my friends. The night before we were talking about wearing suits, so I had the idea to wear one for New Year's Eve. Yet, I wasn't wearing the tie and the pants because it looked too formal to me. However, Yui, the Thai student, need almost half an hour to notice my special clothing :) (she seemed to be tired, for she hadn't sleep the night before)

I only miss a hat to look
like a chauffeur *smile*

Our plan for December 31st, 2005 was to drive from Winnipeg to Morden, the small town were we booked a motel room.

First Day: Trip to Winkler and Morden

After around one hour of driving we reached the city of Winkler.

The City of Winkler

Winkler was founded in 1888 by Russian Mennonites; today the city counts many ancient German mennonites as inhabitants. In Winkler we first had lunch at Dairy Queen (they are famous for good ice cream!).

Afterwards, we continued our trip to Morden, a small town close to Winkler (by doing some research on this cities I found out that both cities have their own small airport *wondering*). Morden has a couple of beautiful old buildings and a few shops.

The Town of Morden

One of these nice old buildings (former post office)

Our Motel was situated outside of Morden, for around 100 bucks we got a room with 2 double beds and a bed sofa. Our motel room was nice, and I was excited that the motel also disposed a swimming pool and a whirl pool. After check in we decided to go back to Winkler, to do some shopping and to watch out for a place to have dinner and to spend our new year's eve.

By driving through Winkler we saw a dozen of churches, it was incredible - Winkler has probably more churches than shops!!! By doing our shopping in Canadian Superstore we could also meet many local women wearing traditional clothing (also wearing something like a black triangle on their hairs); according to a Canadian friend this should be traditional mennonites. Finally, we also didn't find a nice place to have dinner in Winkler, for there are almost no restaurants in Winkler (with the exception of fast food chains).

Back in Morden we finally found a steak house, unfortunately we only could have dinner there because they closed already at 10 o'clock. So we still had to find a place to stay for midnight (would be boring to spend midnight in the motel room!). After a short break in our motel room and a relaxing bath in the whirl pool we had an excellent (and a bit expensive) dinner at the steak house (a 10 oz steak with danish potatoes and veggies).

The waitress told us that there should be a bar open over midnight at the other end of the town. For it was too early (around 9:30 p.m.) to go there, I decided to have a look outside of Morden in order to find another bar/pub. We left Morden in direction of la Rivière, the place where we should go skiing the next day. For about 40 kilometres there was nothing, nothing, nothing and again nothing. With the exception of the small town of Manitou (my roommate told me that she spend the weekends during her childhood in Manitou because her father used to have a farm there) there was just nothing than farmland ... and probably I never saw before such a dark place at night (for there lives almost no population). We ended our night trip at la Rivière, where we should spend our next day. Because there was also no party there, we decided to go back to Morden.

We finally spent midnight at this bar in Morden, probably the only on open in Morden and Winkler, with lots of young people of the town. It wasn't a bad place, and with a beer and billiard /pool game we ended the year 2005.

The next day we planned to go skiing in la Rivière / Mountain Holiday. Thus we had to get up before lunch time ;) ... around 10:00 o'clock everybody was ready for leaving the motel.

Second Day: Skiing in la Rivière / Holiday Mountain

Actually, the countryside is really special, for a few kilometres before arriving in La Rivière there is still nothing such like a hill ... the countryside is flat.


Suddenly the road goes downhill and it looks like you drive into a hole ...


In this small valley is located la Rivière and and also the Holiday Mountain ski resort.

Holiday Mountain

The hill is pretty small, yet for sure it was good for any beginner. For intermediate skiers, the hill is a bit boring. However, Shinya, Yui and I rented a pair of shaped ski (= carving ski) and Brian a snow board. Shinya (who is also a good skier) and I tried to give a beginner's lesson to Yui ... after 1 hour she was almost able to drive down alone a small hill.

Brian was really motivated ... and he worked hard on improving his snowboarding skills.

After an hour or so, we had a small lunch at the restaurant of the resort. Later on, Shinya and I were driving down the hill again and again and had some fun helping the beginners back on their skis. And Brian was still working hard ... Yui prefered to wait in the restaurant, for she seemed to be too tired.

About 2 hours later, everybody was tired and we decided to go home. Back in Winnipeg we ended our trip with a nice dinner at Boston Pizza.