Two weeks more ... school is over now!!!

Yep I'm still a bad blogger ... however, let's talk about the last two weeks.

Monday two weeks ago, I had my first final exam. It was an exam in Economics, and I was pretty late with my studying for I didn't work as well during the weekend. Thus, I was working all day until my exam at 6 p.m. ... and I did it pretty well I think. Later on that night, I saw Dogville with my roommate ... it was a pretty good movie with Nicole Kidman ... takes some time to get into the story (the story is quite similar to "Der Besuch der alten Dame" of Friedrich Dürrenmatt).


Tuesday, I went to take my first Salsa class ... it was pretty amazing ... I loved it. Ok, it's true I also had a nice partner *smile* ... also Phil, my roommate, really enjoyed the lesson. Later on, we visited a friend of Phil; we went for a run and had awesome dinner: BBQ Steaks with Salad ... hmmm! This night was just perfect!!!

On Wednesday I went to library and started preparing for my Mgmt Science exam. I also met David, a Mexican international student at the library ... and you know what ... I found someone for travelling to New York ... I was really excited about that!!! At night I went back to take another Salsa class, that time Mark joined and we had again lots of fun. Afterwards, we went to have a drink at a pub ... and enjoyed some French Fries :)

Thursday and Friday I just spent most of the time studying for the exam. Friday night, I saw another movie with my roommates ... Craig and Tannis stood in ... we saw "An unfinished life" with Jennifer Lopez ... kind of a US/Canadian country movie; good but not really lasting ...!

Saturday night I went to a wedding social with Craig. They told me that this kind of social is only hold in Winnipeg. The social's goal is to raise money for the upcoming wedding. We had some drinks and met some new people ... the social already ended at 01:00 a.m. for it's the law for public events (I was suprised!!!) ...

On Sunday we should have had a run in the morning with the Running Room. Yet, when my alarm clock woke me up at 8 am; I couldn't hear any noise (it seemed that nobody was up) and thus I decided to continue sleeping. Finally, I still had a good run with my roommate in the afternoon. We run to the Forks along the Red River. The weather was pretty amazing; it was such a beautiful day in early spring! Later on, we had some pasta and suddenly also Mark came over and joined for dinner. At night I had to study for my exams.

Monday, I spent most of the time studying. By the way I saw a good documentary on China.

The Tank Man

It is talking about the tank man and the resistance of the population against the government in 1989. At night I went for a short bycicle ride ... on the way I smelt the odor of BBQ steaks ... I had no other choice than to cycle to the next grocery shop and to buy some awsome steaks :)

On Tuesday I had my exam in Mgmt Science. I was kind of too slow and didn't manage to finish the exam; however, I don't care too much, for sure I passed the exam. At night I attended another amazing Salsa class with my roommate.

On Wednesday I started studying for my last exam on Friday. Most of the stuff was to memorize ... I really hate that. At night Melanie joined for Salsa; that was really fun and later on we enjoyed a drink at the King's Head Pub downtown. It's a nice place to stay with kind of a European/English touch.

Thurdsday I had a hard time to study. It was my last day and my motivation was not mentionable. During the day I watched another good documentary on the US conflict with North Korea and went for a short run with my roommate.

My last night of studies

At night it was the last time I had to study for university (in Canada ... in Switzerland I'm not done yet!). However, it was a good feeling ... holiday was so close now!!!

Friday, I finally wrote my last exam ... was a pretty hard one. I wrote several pages and was still not able to answer all the questions well. Yet, it seems this was one of the exams you can hardly finish. Later on, I was invited by Chrissy for BBQ. The weather was so nice ... it was just a perfect evening.

The BBQ Team

Nan and Mark

What an amazing night ...

Mmmhhh strawberries :)

What's happening here??? No, I didn't get one! *haha*

On Saturday I US trip with Melanie and Naomi was planned. I was ready for 8 am and picked them up at their houses. Yet, a couple of minutes later ... my engine broke down on Pembina Hwy. I thought that might be exceptional and continued the drive. As we left Winnipeg the engine broke down again; thus, I decided to cancel the trip and to return to Winnipeg. Luckily we found a repair shop ... and they were able to determine and fix the problem (one sensor that is responsible for switching the gears broke down) within one hour. Thus, finally we were ready for 11 am ... and arrived at the border for 1:30 pm. Lot's of the countryside was flooded and we had to use a by-pass (what made us lose time).

The US customs officer were pretty friendly and joking ... it might be advantageous to have some nice girls in the car ;) Finally we arrived for 3 pm in Grand Forks.

City Hall of Grand Forks

Melanie and Naomi

There we enjoyed some Mexican food; unfortunately, the food wasn't tasty and the waitress was pretty unfriendly and rude. Later on, we went to Walmart and also to Wendy's ... before we finally drove back to Winnipeg.

On Suday, I slept in and called my parents. Later on I went for a short run with my roommate. As I was cooking, Mark rang the door bell ... he seems to smell it when I cook ;) ... and thus we had dinner together. At night we went to Corydon. There we found a funny little store with sweets and treats.

Sugar Mountain @ Corydon Avenue

Later on, we enjoyed a good, but quite expensive pizza (around 19 bucks for a 13' pizza). As we left the bar, it began to snow ... I couldn't believe it. The same afternoon I enjoyed wearing a T-Shirt ...

	SKY	TEMP. (C°)		FEELS LIKE
SUN 23h		2		-4
SUN 22h		4		-1
SUN 21h		4		-1
SUN 20h		7		-
SUN 19h		10		-
SUN 18h		12		-
SUN 17h		15		-
SUN 16h		15		-
SUN 15h		22		-

Northern Lights

Wow ... tonight we had the opportunity to see Northern Lights.



Check my gallery for more pictures!

(the pictures are not perfect, for I took the pictures in front of my house, and with the city lights it's not really dark ... if I ever will have the opportunity, to take pictures on the countryside (dark!) I will publish them for sure on my blog)

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

Do you like documentaries?

Part of my experience in Canada is to watch North American documentaries.

By chance I found this great page with dozens of documentaries on North American as well as Global issues. It's really interesting ... and a good opportunity to learn English:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

You can watch all the documentaries online ... have fun!!!