Testing the piccies...

This is me trying out the posting-pictures-to-Blogspot thing, since I've never actually done that.

So all of these are from Banff last weekend (obviously!) and just testing out the different layouts. But you get the pleasure of seeing pictures :D



We couldn't not have the typical head-in-mountains picture. It looks so fake though, like I'm posing in front of a background! But they are real - just that gorgeous & perfect!


And all of our group there!

Update, part 2: Banff!!

So, as mentioned several times, we went to Banff this past Saturday for the day. It was an incredible day!!

After going to bed at 2am the night before, I was up at 7:30am (on a Saturday morning!) to meet people at the car rental place for 9am, then it was off to Banff! By the time we left, got to the town around 11am or so, and started hiking up Sulphur Mountain around 11:30am.

With breaks & stuff, this took us about 3 hours. The path was about 5.5km long, and the elevation at the top was about 2881m (although Banff is a pretty high town, so I don't know what the elevation change was - I think I read about 700m) You know it's a group of 6 engineering students hiking up a mountain when you start arguing over how much energy/work/power you're exerting. Or when a big discussion is started over the tension in the line that supported the gondolas that also went up the mountain. Tee hee!

Despite how much walking it was, my legs weren't too bad, although they've been a little sore for the past few days since. But I have no stamina, and there were a few times where I had trouble breathing. I must say though, Sophie was the only one who didn't seem to want to walk up - and while I think she thought we were nuts for doing so, I must say that I was proud of her for walking the entire thing - both up & down! It was a good hike, although I slowed down towards the end, due to the breathing, and a mild phobia of heights/falling (see below)

But the entire thing was well worth it - GORGEOUS!! So quiet & peaceful, despite the number of people, and such a great view. Definitely let me know if you want to see pictures - I was so happy with how some of them turned out. I still don't think a camera can capture the full beauty of being on top of the Rocky Mountains, but some are still quite good! Just so unbelievable - I don't even know what else to say!

We were up there for awhile - probably about an hour & a half (we also had some food there) then started to trek downwards. Now, this part went faster than climbing up - took a little less than an hour & a half. However, I had some problems initially - again, back to the fear of falling. Since we were up so high, there was snow on the mountains, and thus, snow & mud on the path. The path is not terribly wide either - some parts, room for 2 people, but that was about it. And with the wet mud, and the snow, some parts were a tad slippery, and since this was beside the drop-off, my fear of falling came into play, for a good third of the walk down. I'm usually not afraid of heights too much - being on top didn't bother me, as long as I had a bit of distance from the edge. However, I was freaked out by the walking down on slippery paths - it was horrible, but luckily, Amanda & Vinay stuck by me to encourage me. Once we got past the snow, and back on dry ground, I was completely fine walking down the rest of the path.

It was an amazing experience though, although definitely showed us all that we're out of shape! Afterwards, we visited some of the shops, and went for dinner, since we were all starving. It was also TJ's birthday, so we headed to one of his favourite pubs afterwards. Dan & Matt also came to meet up with us there - Dan's another co-op student, who's actually in Calgary for just a month or so, working on a project for his company, and Matt's his brother, who was visiting for the weekend. I'd met Dan earlier in the week at the Watpub, and it was my first time meeting Matt, but they're two very nice guys.

Anyway, we ended up leaving later than planned, since Amanda was driving. Then got lost on the way home, both things b/c of TJ. I know Amanda wasn't too impressed with him at the end. Meh.

However, another thing that made the day spectacular is that on the drive back to Calgary from Banff, we saw the afterglow of the Northern Lights. I have never seen them - it was amazing! There were also so many stars out - between those two things, and the view from the mountain today - makes you realize how awesome nature is!

Update, part 1: Ma birthday!!

So I have two major events from the past few days to update on: my birthday, and our trip to Banff on Saturday. This is the birthday update post, and the Banff one will come later (probably late tonight after work or tomorrow morning)

The birthday was pretty good. Worked, talked to the parents, then Amanda, Paul, Vinay, Sophie, TJ & I went out to The Whiskey - it's a pub & a club, so my original plan was to start early in the pub - around 8ish or so. B/c I knew people had to work today, and didn't want to stay late, but that way, they could come for a little bit. Then, if people wanted, we could go to the club a bit later for some dancing!

TJ was out of town for the day on business, and was able to get dropped off downtown earlier, so I ended up meeting him there around 7:30pm, then no one else came till about 8:45. But we had some good convo, and beer. Oh yes, it was $7 pitchers, and not just crap beer, but they had $7 pitchers of Rickard's Red!! It wasn't quite as big as normal pitchers, but it had about 2.5 pints in it (and seeing as a pint costed about $6.50, the $7 for the pitcher was a good deal!) And they had $1.25 drinks for the ladies in the club part (but could be brought over to the pub) - your typical drinks like rye, rum, vodka, etc. TJ had planned on leaving when other people showed up, since he'd had a long work day, and also lives pretty far by public transportation. But he ended up staying.

In the early part of the evening, there was this male stripper-like show in the club - not completely stripped, just no shirts, but they had GORGEOUS bodies! So, I was over in the club part with Amanda & Sophie - and we were watching a bit. And girls could pay $5 to get a dance with the guy - so Amanda bought me a dance for my birthday!! Tee hee. It was fun. Then I got to throw the money down his pants :P

Overall, it was a fun night, except for the fact that I drank too much. A whole lot of beer, and a few rye & cokes. My tolerance has gone way down though, and it was enough to make me highly drunk & sick. I puked in the bathroom a number of times before leaving - I wasn't sure if I'd gotten kicked out, or if friends decided that it was time to leave. Since then though, I've found out that apparently they'd found me in a corner almost passed out, so then they decided I should leave. But it was definitely enough alcohol to make me drunk/not have fun towards the end, and sick. Almost made me not want to drink again. I definitely need to learn to drink only to the tipsy/buzzed state, and not the over-the-top drunk stage. But it was a good time until then.

TJ ended up leaving with me - I'd told him to go home & that I could get myself home, but he said that it was his first priority to get me home. I don't remember much of the walk to the train station, other than it was hard, and I was definitely staggering huge. I puked a bit at the train station, then I was ok. But when the train started moving, I felt sick again. We got off at a stop, b/c I was almost puking, so that I could puke. And I barely did at that stop. We waited for the next train for about 15-20 minutes, and I was completely fine - not sick. But, as soon as the train started moving, I got sick again - puked into my toque, which is gross, but that was really, the only place.

Got back around 1am I think - no idea. TJ ended up crashing, so I was going to give him my bed, and I would sleep on the couch, but in the end, we ended up sharing the bed - it's a double bed anyway. He was also freezing, so it was a bit of added body heat. Not a very good sleep - and he had to get up for work in the morning, so he got up to shower a bit before 7am. I slept a bit more, then my stomach was queasy a lot that day - needless to say, I didn't eat a whole lot. In fact, my appetite's gone down A LOT in the past few weeks. Oh well.

Overall though, I had some great people around to help me celebrate, and it was a good time for the most part. And now I'm 23 - as Geoff said, the second year of who-the-hell-cares :P Meh. I have no idea where I'll even be for my 24th birthday!

As I said, Banff update later. If you want to see pictures from the birthday, let me know ;) Other than that, ciao for now!

♪Hi ho...hi ho...it's off to Banff we go!♪

It's about 7:50am on Saturday morning - I don't know when the last time was that I was up this early on a Saturday! But it'll be worth it, for I'm meeting people at 9am as we're headed to BANFF today :D *so excited*

Birthday update to come sometime in the next few days - as well as a Banff update I'm sure ;)

♪Happy almost-birthday to me♪

As I write this, it's 11:30pm here in Calgary on September 20, and 1:30am at home on September 21. So the people at home can celebrate my birthday right now, but I have to wait half an hour. So the best way to wait? BLOG! LOL. Plus I haven't been too good at writing here, have I?

Lack. Of. Time. Honestly, between my two jobs, I've been working A LOT! I haven't had a day off since last Monday (the 11th), and I don't get one off till this coming Saturday (the 23rd) Both jobs are going relatively well, and I'm enjoying them for the most part. Hoping to get trained as a server at Tony Roma's within a month or so...that way, I can make a bit more money. Which would rock. I've worked the past 6 nights though at Tony's, plus my regular Tuesday-Friday shift at Soba Ten. Although Soba Ten changed their hours, to be closed from 2-5pm every day, so I no longer work all day on Wednesday. Which isn't too bad though - it's usually pretty dead at that time anyway. However, b/c of this, I had today (Wednesday) off from Tony's, and tomorrow off for the birthday. But there have been several days that I've worked both jobs. Just been putting in a lot of hours - I need the money!

However, I have done some other fun things. The last time I made a real post, that was Sunday the 10th. Amanda & I ended up going to Fish Creek Provincial Park, on the south side of Calgary. We were supposed to have others join us, but in the end, it ended up just being the two of us. Which was alright - good convo, good walk, good scenery. Some good pictures came out of it too (on Imagestation...let me know if you want to see!)

However, provincial parks in Alberta are not the same as the ones in Ontario. In Ontario, a provincial park is usually a really really nice campground, with lots of trees and hiking trails and scenery and always on water of some sort with a beach. In Alberta (er, at least, in Calgary) it's just a rather large piece of undeveloped land. Which still had some nice areas. There were streams which led to the river (which the park also hit at some point) but it just wasn't the same. Also, there was a huge farmer's field in the middle, with wheat crops! And there weren't very many trees at all.

After we found out the boys weren't coming, we decided to walk to the "Great Blue Heron Lookout Point." With hopes of seeing some herons. However, the herons HAVEN'T RESIDED THERE SINCE 1988! WTF? That was disappointing. There was also some guy there, sitting on the bench at the lookout point, that as we approached called out "You two are a sight for sore eyes." Umm...ok. He was weird, and at one point, started reciting lines from a play (I think he was an actor at some point earlier in life?) He was a bit creepy, but as Amanda & I discussed afterwards, we don't know *why* he was creepy - nothing he did was overly creepy at all - some of it was weird - but he just gave off a creepy vibe. Amanda's heard all my stories of weirdos that I've met in Calgary, and she's had very few encounters, so she thinks I just attract weirdos. LOL.

We were both quite tired by the end - it was a lot of walking, and neither of us wore very good shoes. Had some much needed Dairy Queen afterwards - yum!

As previously mentioned, the Monday, I met Vinay & Sophie for cheap wings at the Kilk. Wednesday, I went to Amanda's after work where we made dinner (Pad Thai, from a box - not nearly as good as a restaurant's, but not horrible) and watched the finale of Rockstar Supernova. Thursday after I worked at Tony's, I went over to the boys' place at MRC for some beer, homemade brownies & socializing. Friday, work & that was it.

On Saturday night, I worked, then a bunch of us went to Cowboys, which is this club in Calgary - one of the more famous ones. I worked till almost closing time, so I didn't get to predrink with the others, so I was too damn sober compared to everyone else. And cover & drinks were quite pricey there, so I only had two beers. But it was fun - mainly country music being played, but also some Top 40 stuff. And my roommate Mike finally came out with us! However, he & I were supposed to walk home together, as the trains & buses only run till about 1:30am here (which SUCKS for post-bar stuff) But he went outside when a few others left, and wasn't allowed back in, and apparently my cell number didn't go into his phone properly :S I tried calling him, and when I finally got ahold of him, he was almost home already. So I ended up walking the 40-45 minute walk home by myself, at 2am on a Saturday night! I'd also told Mike when I talked to him that if I wasn't home in 45 minutes, to call my cell (then the cops if he couldn't get ahold of me) But he was passed out by then :P Oh well - I made it home safely. Although I was in my boots, with heels, and I'd had this large callus/blister thing on my one foot, which was feeling better, but now is worse again from the walk :S Meh - it was a good night though!

The next day wasn't as good. I wasn't hungover, but I didn't get to bed till 3am on Saturday, and we had a 9:45am meeting on Sunday morning! So I had to leave just after 9 to get there on time on the train. That sucked - and I didn't sleep well, so I got probably less than 4 hours of sleep! Amanda & I were also planning on going to the zoo, but the meeting was long (about 2 hours, and PAINFUL) and for a few other reasons, we opted not to go. So I went home to nap, then back to work!

Monday & Tuesday were boring. Today, Wednesday, was the first Watpub of the term! However, there was only one guy there that I didn't know - the rest are people I've hung out with & Jun, who's in my class (and I'm sure will hang out with us) Still fun though, then I went to Amanda's place for our TV night - since Rockstar Supernova's over, it's been replaced by Numb3rs & Bones.

Tomorrow, we'll be doing something for my birthday, but it's still unsure as of what. I'm not overly stoked about it - 23 just sounds old. It's leaving the early 20s, and approaching mid-20s. It's closer to 25, whereas 22 was closer to 20. Meh. I'm still hoping to have a fun time tomorrow night! My co-worker/co-server Megan, at Soba Ten, was like "dude, if you come in closer to 12noon on Friday, I understand...and if you end up having a killer time & are too hungover to come in, that's also ok!" LOL. I doubt that'll happen - I might be a bit late though :P

Saturday is my first day off in like 12 days. And I know what you're thinking - "Jill, how in the world did you get it off?" Well, I asked, but why you ask? B/c our plans for this past weekend got changed, and we're going to BANFF for the day!! WAHOO!! I'm super-excited about that - it's going to be AWESOME! Hopefully the weather will be nice, and I'm so excited about going :D

Anyway, 11:48pm now - getting close to the birthday here :P But that's all I've got to say for now. Take care everyone, and I'll try to update post-Banff (or maybe post-birthday, if I feel like it :P) Ciao for now!

Don't count your chickens before they hatch...

Random thought of the day.

I met Sophie & Vinay for wings this evening at the Kilk - on wing night (Monday) they have $0.17 wings. Not quite as good as the wings at Morty's back in Waterloo (which are $0.49/wing on Mondays & Thursdays) but for that price, the wings at the Kilk were good enough! Still quite tasty :) I'm sure we'll be back!

We had an interesting discussion about the chickens. The three of us consumed 70 wings altogether this evening. It was crazy-busy there, and there were a lot of groups bigger than ours. So we figured that they probably sell at least 10,000 wings every Monday. Now, at Morty's in Waterloo, they have wing night on Mondays & Thursdays, so let's assume that on each day, they also sell about 10,000 wings. Figure that there are many many more restaurants that sell an awful lot of wings each week. THAT IS A HELL OF A LOT OF CHICKENS!!! Each chicken has 2 wings, so during wing nights every week, that's about 15,000 chickens between only Morty's & the Kilk. Even if there were only 100 restaurants that sold 10,000 wings each week, that's A MILLION AND A HALF CHICKENS EVERY WEEK! And I'm sure that's an underestimation. CRAZY! Maybe I should go into chicken farming...that could be some good money!

♪I'm going off the rails on a crazy train♪

I was informed the other day that I do not update enough. Well, here's my attempt to write more often - we shall see if it actually works.

So, since the last time I wrote, Wednesday evening, I went to Amanda's place for chicken cacciatore & the elimination show of Rockstar Supernova. Thursday, nothing much happened. Friday, seven of us (myself, Amanda, Paul, Vinay, Rahul, TJ & Sophie) went to Bottlescrew Bill's for a few beers, then back to the boys' place for poker (the boys = Paul, Vinay & Rahul) Last night, Paul, Vinay, Sophie & I went to see the movie Crank - it wasn't bad, definitely more of a guys' movie. But I didn't mind it. Today, I'm not sure what's going on - weather's supposed to be nice, so I'm hoping for an outdoor adventure that doesn't cost much!

I guess the biggest news is that I started working in a Japanese restaurant, as a server, on Thursday. I dropped off my resume Wednesday afternoon, talked to the owner in person Wednesday night, and started working on Thursday. I'm going to be working from 11am-2:30pm-ish on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, and from 11am-6pm-ish on Wednesdays, so about 16-18 hours/week, which isn't bad. And it'll be decent money, since lunchtime is busy & so tips are good! This past week, Thursday wasn't too bad - there were 3 of us on, so I didn't serve many tables, so I could learn. Friday was a bit busier, and there were 2 of us, so I was a little stressed about that. But I think everything went alright. So the tips will be good, and I get a free meal every day (and possibly 2 on Wednesday?) so that's pretty good!

As for a second job, b/c obviously 16hours/week isn't enough, so I was also going to look for a second job. However, I had an interview for Tony Roma's (another restaurant - much bigger chain) yesterday, and Jonathan (the general manager that interviewed me) offered me a hostess position to begin with, right on the spot. I'd eventually move up into waitressing, but since I lack serving experience, he thinks I'd be best off starting as hostess. And I'd get hours - I could work probably 40-50 hours/week if I wanted to. So I think I'm going to call & accept that job today, and hopefully work about 25-30 hours/week in that job, along with the other job at the Japanese restaurant. So all is working out! I still have a few resumes out with engineering companies, so we'll play it by ear if any of them contact me, but I'm alright with not working in engineering this term. I have all my co-op credits, and waitressing's different.

More adventures with crazies on the train! Last week sometime, there was this woman, who was probably like 35-40 years old. Possibly a prostitute? She looked drunk or stoned out of her mind - her eyes looked hollow. She was wearing a denim button-up shirt, and a denim skirt. However, the shirt only had one middle button done up, and I don't think she was wearing a bra. It covered her up, but when she turned, you could see inside. So, she sat down, put on her sunglasses, kept looking at herself in the mirror then would do a hair-flippy thing, with the whole model-pout-attitude look. It was interesting. She was only on the train for one stop, but she must have done that at least 10-15 times!

Yesterday, on my way home from the interview, there was one guy who tried the one door, but it didn't work (you have to push a button for it to open here) He was impatient & kept trying before the "Open Door Light" went on, then was like "FUCK! OPEN! FUCK!" And finally went to the next door in the same train, and was mumbling & swearing to himself for a few minutes - sat right beside the broken door though. Then at a later stop, when people tried to get in that broken door, he was like "Haha! Doesn't work!" Later, he was singing random songs loudly in his seat.

But the creepiest had to be last night, when I was alone on my way to the movies. I'm ok with crazy people on the train, but it's a little scary when they sit beside me! I was sitting, minding my own business, listening to music, when he comes on. He's this 50-60 year old, big fat guy, whose clothing did not fit so half his stomach was exposed. Sits beside me, and starts rambling on (sort of to the guy across from him) about how he used to box professionally. And he was punching the air. But the guy STINKS! I'm there, thinking that it smelled like Listerine, but I'm thinking that it couldn't be, and had to be some sort of alcohol, but I couldn't place what it was. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, he takes out a bottle of mouthwash (same as the Original Listerine, but some cheap brand) and takes a huge drink of it - swallows it, doesn't spit it out (thankfully, b/c it likely would have gotten on me) Now, I can't stand the smell of mouthwash, and he also had crusted mouthwash around his mouth - I almost puked. He also tried to talk to me, asking me where I was from. I lied, and said "here" in order to speak the least to him - and he starts rambling about how he's been in Calgary for 30 years, and how he likes it, etc. I don't know much of what he said, for I had my music loud enough :P

Finally, he did get off the train, and the guys behind me were talking about how bad he stunk, and one was like "that poor girl beside him - I don't know how she put up with him." So I chatted to them a bit...the one was pretty cute. I told him it was mouthwash, and he's like "well, I guess whatever gets you high." So I joked that it's probably cheaper than booze or drugs, but we agreed that we'd still both stick to the booze or weed.

Calgary's a very interesting city though. It's definitely a lot less rushed out here than in Ontario. The people are weird though - either professional & rich, or if they're under 18 they're punks, or they're homeless/alcoholics/druggies, or students (which might be synonymous with alcoholics, but they're more normal & not creepy about it!)

The weather's continued to be nice here though, but supposed to break this week :( According to the Weather Network, it's going to be in the single digits next weekend. Which SUCKS, b/c we're planning on going to Banff! Oh well - then I just won't spend the money on white water rafting, and I can hike & possibly horseback ride. We shall see - I also hope to be able to get the weekend off from Tony Roma's - I'll ask about that when I call today.

I think that's it for now. Just a note, that on any adventures that we take, I'll likely post the pictures on Imagestation, and I'll try to keep the list of pictures on the right hand side of this page updated. It won't actually directly link to the pictures, but if you want to see any of them, just ask for the link, and I'll send to you. For example, right now, I have our rafting pictures up. B/c I'm not going to automatically send the links out to anyone other than my parents (if they're parent-proof!) and the people who are there.

Anyway, I must go hunt down some breakfast, and an adventure! Have a great day & week!!

♪Take me to the river...take me to the water♪

G'day from Calgary!

I've been meaning to write this for awhile, but haven't had the chance. I will try to update this thing more than once a week though. Key word: try.

So...last time I posted was Tuesday. That evening, I met up with Amanda (who'd just arrived in town that day) for dinner at a local pub, Murph's, then we went back to her hotel room (her company put her up in one till she moved into her place) and watched Rockstar Supernova. That was the first time I'd seen that show, and now I'm kind of hooked :P We hung out a bit after, then I took the train home.

Wednesday, I talked to companies during the day, and another UW student, Paul (who's in your class, Lou) came in. So Paul, Amanda, Vinay, TJ & myself went to the Kilk for dinner, as per the recommendation of TJ. It wasn't bad, although a little far for some people to get to. Apparently they have $0.17 wings on Monday nights, so we may end up going on a few Mondays. We headed downtown afterwards and just hung out in the hotel rooms (Vinay was in the same hotel as Amanda for awhile, since he was in town early, and Paul was in another hotel from last Wednesday till this past Monday)

Thursday, I talked to companies, talked to some banks about Lines of Credit, met up with Paul, Amanda & Vinay. We moved Vinay to his place - he's living (with Paul & Rahul, who's also in my class) in residence at Mount Royal College. We wandered around the Chinook Mall, then dinner at Joey Tomatoes. Joey Tomatoes (which we also ate at on Saturday night, but a different location) seems to be a Western Canada restaurant - it's like an upscale East Side Mario's, with a lot more variety. I had Tandoori Chicken Pizza on Thursday - it was so damn good!

Friday, I met up with Amanda, and talked to a few other companies. I'd been concentrating on getting an engineering job, but wasn't motivated to do that, so I also made the decision to look for jobs elsewhere too, b/c engineering companies may also not hire me right away - it might take them a week or two. So I've started looking at jobs in restaurants & stuff, so that I can just get some income (the bank account's looking a little low, and I need to somehow get some money in there by the end of September!) I actually ate at home that night, which was good since I can't afford to eat out every night! Paul's brother Ryan came in that day for the weekend (their Dad's a pilot, so he gets cheap tickets) so we were going to meet up downtown. Other people backed out, so it ended up just being Paul, Ryan & I having a few beers at Barley Mill that night (where they'd had dinner) It was alright though - not too loud in there, so we could talk. I'd only met Paul once before Calgary, so got to know him a bit better. It was a fun evening!

Saturday was probably the best day here since I got to Calgary! Six of us (Amanda, Paul, Ryan, Vinay, TJ & myself) decided to rent a 6-person raft & go down the Bow River, which is the river that runs through Calgary. All of us but TJ met up at Paul's place downtown by 1:15pm, and found out TJ would be another hour, so we decided to grab some food. Got our raft, and discovered that we wanted to start wayyyyyyyy upstream, then end in downtown. So, we didn't know the bus routes, so we decided to take our raft (which was deflated), our 2 paddles, our 6 lifejackets & our pump (for the raft) on the C-train, where we got a few really funny looks (b/c obviously, we're going *away* from the river!) Stopped off for a grocery store & liquor store run, and when we were finished on the train, it was now about 3:30pm. Were told about which bus to take to the river, so waited like 1/2 hour for that one, then had to catch another. Which we also waited 1/2 hour for, but it was like a 45 minute walk otherwise. The bus driver also told us that next time, there's one bus that would have taken us right from downtown to that place on the river. Instead of the train, the two buses, and all the waiting! Oops! By the time we inflated the boat & got our stuff in it, we didn't get into the river in the boat till 5:30pm. Took us like 3 hours to get there, and we were all just wanting to go! Actually, we thought at first also that we hadn't even gotten all the plugs for the boat, which would have sucked. But all was well, and the boat worked well.

Side story: we passed a church that had a sign that said "God responds to Kneemail." *groan*

The raft ride was fantastic! Took about 3 hours (which included a stop to pee & fix up a bit of deflation), and the weather was beautiful! We had beer/coolers, we had chips/granola bars, we had good people, we had good scenery. It was just a great, relaxing time! Towards the end, TJ pushed Amanda into the water, after she said that we should have a contest where we're all standing, and whoever gets into the water first loses. LOL. By the end, we were all a bit wet & cold, and tired, and hungry. But we all had an amazing time! Went for dinner at Joey Tomatoes again, where I had Sushi Tacos, which were weird but really good, and headed home.

We had the raft for 24 hours, so we decided to meet up for an early-morning raft ride on Sunday. We were supposed to meet at 6:45am, but of course, that didn't happen (although I was on time for once!) It was only 5 of us (not TJ) but we got on the river by 9:30, after taking the right bus this time! No beer, but chips, less wetness (due to nobody ending up in the river) and still a great, relaxing time. Gotta love having a river running right down the middle of the city! It's awesome!

Afterwards, I met up with Sophie, who'd come in the day before & wanted to see where she was working, so we went a-hunting for her place on the University of Calgary campus, which took awhile, but we found! My feet are ready to kill me though - I've walked around so much since I got here, but I likely won't stop :P That night, I ended up going to Mount Royal College for Poker Night with Paul, Ryan & Vinay. I lost like $2, so whatever. It was fun.

However, I'm starting to hate Calgary Transit. Sure, I live near the train, which is convenient, but we've had some problems. Like Sunday night. Paul, Ryan & I left in time to catch the last bus downtown, but somehow, we got screwed up, and waited on the wrong side of the street, and missed the bus. So we had to wait for a cab, which took awhile to get there. Got back to the hotel, where I used their bathroom, then Paul walked with me to the train & waited there with me. I had said that I would be ok, but it was almost 1am, so he figured he should - for this, I was greatly appreciative. The last bus was supposed to come somewhere around 1:15-1:30am, but we waited till 1:45am, AND NO TRAIN! We were so annoyed at Calgary Transit that night. My options were to pay for a cab, walk the 40 minute walk home by myself at night, or crash on the hotel couch. I opted for the last one, as it was cheapest & safest! I didn't sleep well, b/c the couch was super-uncomfy, but oh well.

The weather's been gorgeous the past few days, so while I was tired on Monday (from 4 hours of sleep Saturday night & an uncomfy sleep Sunday night), I couldn't bear the thought of staying indoors, so I decided to go for a walk - headed down towards Prince's Island, which is near downtown, and then eventually, met up with Sophie at the Chinook Centre. Some of us were supposed to go to the Kilk for $0.17 wings, but it was far from where we were, and people had to be places by certain times, and it was Labour Day & a gorgeous day & there was the Labour Day classic (between the Stampeders & the Eskimos) nearby that day, so we figured it'd be impossible to get in. So Sophie, Paul, Vinay, Rahul (who'd just gotten to town that day) & I went to Moxie's Grill. Which was tasty, but the server wasn't good. My Shanghai Noodles came with a fortune cookie, telling me that my "Financial Outlook looks good." I hope that means that I'll get a job soon, or that the numbers on the back might win me the lottery :P Paul also recommended that I play the numbers on roulette at the casino! LOL.

Yesterday, a lot of people started work, which made me kind of sad, b/c I need a job. I wandered to companies, then last night, went to Amanda's for Rockstar Supernova. She had downloaded last week's results show, so we watched both that one & the new one. Tonight, I'm going there for dinner, and then the results show! She said that she hates cooking for just one - I tend to do that, and make tons of leftovers! But we might end up making it a regular thing, where we cook for each other :)

Well, that's the update of what I've been up to. I have a few other points to bring up, but they'll likely come in another post. Things about the people & city itself. Hope all is well with everyone, and I'll try to write sooner. Ta ta for now!