Last weeks in Canada

The countdown on the side of this blog keeps running and suddenly it's only 24 more days before I get home. 15 days in Kamloops.
Once again, I find myself wondering about the concept of time. On the one hand I feel like I just left home, on the other hand I experienced so much in the last few months that they feel like years. Doing this semester abroad was so far the best decision of my life and I am forever thankful to have to opportunity to be here. In the last few months I got to see a lot of places and meet a lot of people. I can't even put in words how happy I am to have met all those people. With some, even though I have only known them for a few months it seems like I knew them forever. Because we are all on this special journey here together we've grown to a big community where everybody likes each other. I tried to use every minute of my time here in the best way possible which is why I can now look back on many trips, movie nights, dinners, spontaneus bacon and egg cooking sessions at 4 am, parties, endless hours in the house of learning, ...
Tomorrow I will have my last class here in Kamloops and then there is only the exam period and that's it for my exchange semester at TRU. I see all of these events with mixed feelings. I am, in a way, really looking forward to coming home and I miss a lot of people and things from home. Then again, I don't want to leave because I'm having such a great time here. However, nothing special can last forever, it would just become ordinary after a while. I am happy for the time I had here and I am already looking forward to the future.
After my exciting time here life just goes on a good as it is right now. First, I will go to New York for a few days before coming home. New Year's Eve will probably be celebrated in London and in the end of February I will go to Nepal on a field trip with my university. In summer I plan to go back to Canada to work. My life is awesome!!!

Today I found this in my mailbox =) I can't wait to see you again!

Victoria

Time is flying, which means we have to use it the best we can. Last weekend I went on another trip, to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Instead of travelling in a big group, I made this trip with just Mariona, which was really nice. After my last trips I have to say, that I really like travelling in a group because it bring together people and you enjoy it. However, planning a trip for up to 11 people can cause many problems, as there are so many different opinions and interests that it is difficult to plan activities that everybody likes. This trip instead was very relaxing and problem-free =)

As renting a car for only two people is pricey, we decided to take the Greyhound (bus system that offers transfer all over Canada) to Vancouver and from there the ferry to Victoria, which is on Vancouver Island. All together, the journey from Kamloops to our hostel in Victoria took us 10 hours, involving changing 5 times. I know, this seems like a long time and most of you probably think it's not worth travelling so far for just a weekend trip. However, here in Canada distances are different and the journey was definitely worth it.

Mariona and the smallest Hostel room on earth

As we arrived quite late on friday, we didn't really do much, except stay in our hostel room (which is for sure the smallest hostel room existing) and do some homework (Mariona) and skype (me). On Saturday morning we then started early and after getting breakfast at a nice bakery across the street we started our city tour in Chinatown.

The Chinatown in Victoria is the oldest in all Canada and one of the most famous streets is Fan Tan Alley, a really narrow street.

When you come to Victoria, the first thing you can think of is England. While you can't really see the remains of being a British colony in the rest of BC, in the capital you feel like in the United Kingdom. First of all, unlike Vancouver, there are no skyscrapers in this city. Somehow it feels like time stopped 100 years ago. There are a lot of small streets and little shops (way too many, ask my wallet) and also old churches which you can't find a lot of here in Canada.
One of the most beautiful spots in Victoria is the inner harbour, where you can find the Parliarment Building and The Empress, which is not only one of the main sights but also a Fairmont hotel. (This is the kind of hotel I want to work in!)

Parliarment Building

The Empress <3

We continued our walk by exploring Beaconhill Park, a city park that lies between the city center and the coast, which is why we could walk back along the coastline afterwards.

In the park you can also find Mile '0', the place where the Transcanada Highway starts. This highway crosses all 10 provinces of Canada and ends in Newfoundland, in Eastern Canada after 8400 km.

As we felt so British in this city, we planned to have afternoon tea at The Empress. However, as we arrived there at 4.45, the tea house was already closed. Still, we had our tea in a tea shop, even if it was in plastic cups instead of fancy porcelain and without scones. We're still in Canada, after all. 

Tea time

After a quick stop at the hostel to drop of all our shopping bags and change our shoes (we had really British weather, as well) we went to have dinner at a nice restaurant at the harbour.
On the way there we stumbled upon a Santa Claus Parade. Yes, in November. We already wondered all day long because the whole city was decorated with Christmas lights. As we then saw the parade in the evening we still were a bit surprised.

After dinner we went for a drink at a bar and then we were so tired from walking around all day that we went straight to bed.
On Sunday we had a really nice breakfast at a diner and then started our journey back to Kamloops.

Eh?!

This video is amazingly accurate =)

Seattle

Last moday was a holiday which meant a long weekend for us. We used it to go on another trip - this time to the States. It seems so fancy to go to the States for just one weekend, however it is only about 6 hours driving. Nevertheless, the US is still the US, which means we had to cross a border to get there, fill out a lot of stuff and pay 6 dollars to get into the country. It's not like in Europe, where we are spoiled by being able to just enter another country without anyone even noticing. We left Kamloops at 2 am so we arrived at the border at around 7 in the morning which meant that at least we didn't have to wait at the border. We filled out our forms, gave our fingerprints and answered all the questions we were asked (Where are you going? What are you doing there? How long will you stay? ...) and then we made it. We were in the United States!
The first difference we found was, of course, al the flags changed. Instead of the maple leaf we saw the American flag everywhere. Second, gas prizes were suddenly shown in gallons and temperature in Fahrenheit. And third, somehow it seemed more civilized. In Canada, you can drive on the highway for hours without seeing any houses and hardly any cars. As soon as we entered the States, it seemed as if we entered cicilization. First of all, there was way more traffic and there was also more houses and farms and "life" around us.
Out first stop on friday was an outlet center about an hour before Seattle. We bought some stuff (not too much, you know, I'm not this kind of label-person) and then went on to the hotel. We lived in a nice 4 star hotel a bit outside Seattle but we got a really good deal and unfortunately we had some problems with our first booking and had to take the only thing that was left for the long weekend.
In the evening we went to the city where we had a nice dinner at the cheesecake factory and walked around the city center for a bit.

Cheesecake - It's impossible to eat one of those alone

On saturday we were really lucky with the weather, considering that it is supposed to be always rainy in Seattle. We went to the Space Needle first thing in the morning where we took the elevator up to the top to get a wonderful view over the city and the harbour. Then we went to a glass museum right next to the Space Needle. Later, we went to the city center and visited the Pike Place Market and the Original Starbucks. In the evening we had dinner and then we went back to have some wine at the hotel while 4 of us went out. (Legal drinking age in the US is 21, so no bars and clubs for me.)

Mariona and me on top of the Space Needle

On Sunday the weather wasn't that good which is why we decided to visit the EMP Museum. This museum is huge and has various exhibitions about music and art. Funny thing: Jason, a friend of mine who lives in Portland (about 3 hours from Seattle) was in town for the weekend as well and, thanks to facebook, as I found out about that, we aranged to meet. He was an Au Pair in Salzburg during the last year and now returned home in Ausgust. It was really nice to meet him again.

Mariona and Jason having a jam session

After the EMP museum we went to the city again and visited the market once more. On saturday we arrived quite late which is why most of the shops were closed already so we could see a bit more this time. For dinner we went to a really nice Italian restaurant. The place was tiny and this evening the most amazing thing of the whole weekend happened. We were having our dinner when on the table next to us five Americans in their fifties took place. As the place was so tiny, they were sitting really close to us. The first thing they said was: How's you Pizza? Are you still eating this? After that tehy started talking to us, asking us about our studies and everything. We talked to them throughout our whole dinner and we actually had a really nice conversation. They kept telling us that we are such nice people and that they are happy that we are the future. They bought us a bottle of wine and then, after we had finished our meal one man said: And by the way, your dinner is taken care of. We were stunned. We had only just met those people and they just paid our dinner for 7 people. We told them that we couldn't accept this and that it is too much but they kept on insisting and told us that they know how student life is and that we don't ahve much money and they told us that they ust want to do us something good because we are so nice people. After we left the restaurant, all of us were so stunned, we couldn't say anything for a few minutes. In our society it is hard to find some really nice people out there.
What I liked most about the city (apart from these nice people) was the street art. Seattle is one of those places where you can just walk around with your eyes open and you will find art wherever you look. So, if you ever go there: Keep your eyes and mind open and pay attention to details. 

a wall full of chewing gum

On Monday, we decided to go home right in the morning because it had snowed in BC and we wanted to avoid the traffic jam. so we came back on monday in the late afternoon after a nice weekend.

Halloween

This week was Halloween and as you might know from various tv series and movies, people over here are going crazy for that. At home, Halloween is hardly noticed, apart from some kids going trick or treating and an occasional party. Here in Canada, Halloween is not only a day but a full week of parties and events and everyone dresses up.
The celebrating started with a Halloween party organized by ISAP which took place on campus. One of the big conference halls was transofrmed in a huge scary party room including a hauted house (which was really funny because most of the actors were my friends) and everybody dressed up and went there.
Halloween costumes that you can buy here are all pretty expensive and slutty. So I decided to be very original and dress up as a grandma. =)

John Lennon's Grandma, an apple tree and a crazy surgeon

On the weekend there were various parties all over town, however we stayed in and had our own nice non-halloween evening because nobody really felt like dressing up.
We did go out on wednesday, though. It was pretty spontanious and as I was trying to find some white hairspray at the supermarked they were all sold out. So I quickly changed plans and went as a vampire. We had a little pre-party at UCH and the we went downtown. The only club in Kamloops was crowded and everybody was dressed up. You can compare this to carneval or Fasching in Austria, only that they have more creative costumes here.

Good students gone crazy