Ooh, its been so much fun this weekend. It was Halloween weekend so I signed up for a pub crawl thingy, and its my first pub crawl. How exciting, 13 hours or clubbing... it was really tiring too of course. And well, with every Halloween, of course there are the costumes, and the cheapo that I am, I spent $15 and about 15 hours to make it. I was supposedly Death, as you can see in the photo below. More photos on facebook as usual :)

After days of telling people back home that the weather's been good and it hasn't snowed yet even though it should have, according to past records, it snows...


It was raining at first and my friend mentioned the chance of snow but I scoffed at her comment and didn't think much of it. And when I walked out, I had to eat my words, and first snow.


It was beautiful. There's a certain romantic feel of snow at night. It's still not fully formed yet, as in its wet snow, but still, its enough to cover the trees, giving it an illuminous glow. It was enough to cover the ground in its purity. And the effect it had on the otherwise worried and stressed Uni students... People put down their pens and books and came out to savour the moment, and became once again small kids, frolicking in the snow and having mini games of snow ball fights and chasing one another. It was an endearing sight of sorts, to see friends come together once more in these stressful times of the midterms. And so I leave you with 2 shots before my camera battery gave out on me.


Beautiful isn't it?

Feet firmly planted,
the view before me daunts me;

the challenge seems too great,

my will does not help unfaze me.

First step forward,
my boot grips the ground firmly;

the elevation surprises me,

or should it even?

Step by step,

moving on;

feet grow heavy,

weighs a ton.

Breaths are laboured,

as I rise;

slopes are tapered,

spelling my demise.

Cold is blistering,
wind is howling;
fingers freezing,

and mind, wheeling.

But finally at the peak I reach,

and from there my reward stands;

the view, magnificient,

beauty perfected.

Ok, this is a pretty sad attempt to sound poetic with regards to my hike today. I went hiking up Kananaskis to its peak, at 2000+ metres which was some altitude for me. Well, its not that high as hikes go, but its my first hike to that height, first hike in snow, and first height with such steepness, which was 50 to 70 degrees elevation for the most part. It took me 3.5 hours, but it was worth it. The view.. it took my breath away, (pun intended) and well.. word's can't describe it, and neither can pictures though I can try...

This is the view from the top.
The upper and lower Kananaskis lakes.. the name kinda reminds me of upper and lower pierce reservoirs
And finally, me on the peak with the dizzying background behind me :)

food

Well, the title doesn't hide much I guess, and I'm bored, so here's just some random food pics that I've been having here in Calgary. It's not much, but it suffices I guess.

This was some sort of fried rice. It was pretty good I think.. just not spicy enough.
This one here was grilled trout on the left, and broiled cabbage with bacon on the right
The one on the left is something like Hor Fun, just without the noodles, cooked by my Japanese room mate. The dish on the right is some potatoes and minced beef with chilli.
This is Thai fried beef noodles which is once again not spicy enough. I start to wonder if they purposely watered down their chili sauce here just for the Canadians...
Ah, beef steak with mushrooms and pepper with potato slices and Vit C water. Great meal I would say. Beef is cheaper than chicken, and fish is the most expensive, thus one might notice the overusage of beef in my dishes (apart from the fact that I love beef)
And finally, what better way to end the day than with a beer. So here I am as a can of Becks Beer. Cheers everyone.

So I'm back from my thanksgiving trip from Banff and Jasper. It was a really really beautiful place, I still marvel at it when I scan through the pictures. I can't imagine waking every morning to a postcard-worthy view, or breathing in such fresh air. As much as each mountain might look the same, each one returns a different sense of awe and wonder. Truly, the beauty of nature is astounding.



I was on one of the glaciers and there was simply so much snow and ice that I decided to make a picture, so viola

wild nights, tame days

After many a beer and wild party, I awake to find myself with these beauties. Say hello to my new "roomies". I simply couldn't resist the shot...



HA!

GOTCHA!

Ok this is just the new poster that I have in my living room. There was some poster sale going on in my Uni today and my roomie was so excited, and he had already bought 2 when he told me. And her was raving so much about this poster so I went ahead and bought it since I like it very much too haha! Pretty neat eh? Now my hostel looks more... warm and house-like ahha. and we have a microwave too! Now we can cook extra and reheat it the next day. Kinda helps us be more at ease when cooking and we don't have to limit our portions for fear of wastage.