Welcome to Calgary, Alberta the Wild Rose Country

Welcome to Alberta, the Wild Rose Country

My second home, Calgary, hosted Winter Olympic in 1989. Calgary economy is very booming now. We got a lot of new immigrants recently. This city is very diverse in cultures and populations. Hockey here is like religion.

As I said, Calgary is likemy second home. I got chances to show around this diverse city to some friends and visitors. We got public transportation including busses and c-trains ( http://www.calgarytransit.com/ ) but many people here drive or walk.
Calgary has an interesting weather. It can be very cold like -4o celcius and gets a lot warmer in the next day. This happens because we got "Chinnook", the warm wind from the Rocky Mountains. It's not stange to have four kinds of weather in a day; winter, rainy, spring :)

I have learned that I better check the weather forecast before i leave home because sometimes it looks sunny and warm but actually it's quite cold. Downtown Tour with Ercan, Ozcan and Nur
Me and the City Hall
At Prince's Island

Prince's Island with the frozen Bow River in the end of Winter
Calgary Downtown with Rebekka and Suzan
Me on Stephen Ave., downtown
Resting on the way to Prince's Island
I am not in San Francisco, ok? heheh... At the pond in Prince's Island Doorsteps @ Calgary City Hall with Christina
Olympic Plaza with Christina
Olympic Plaza and Calgary Tower with Christina
Mandy kisses the beaver!
Mandy, Beaver and Canadian Flag

Olympic Plaza
Nur and Ozcan @ Prince's Island
Ercan, Nur and me
Relaxing @ Prince's Island
Ercan and Ozcan are trying to move that rock! Guys, you rock!
Sunset @ Prince's Island

Me in front of City Hall
Stephen Ave. with Ercan
The pond in Prince's Island
Me
Me @ the Bow River in Prince's Island

Abbotsford, BC April 22, 07

Day 5 (continued) – Abbotsford, BC

I went to the US State of Washington!

We came back to Abbotsford on Sunday afternoon. Godfrey, Rose and I were catching the plane at 7.30 pm. So we still got some time to spend in Abbotsford. Thanks to the Dimitri, the German volunteer in Abbotsford who showed us around.

Abbotsford is a small city in southern BC. It’s a fact that some people here got one part of their garden in Canada and another part is in the State of Washington in the USA. Dimitri took us to the border… hehehe… Rose and Godfrey didn’t do illegal crossing but it wasn’t for Dimitri and me :p. Dimirti and me did illegal crossing with the US patrol there. Hehehe… We just put one foot in the US and one foot in Canada :p It’s very interesting because when you drive from Abbotsford airport, you see the road signs saying speed limit in km. but if you drive a little bit and you see the sign in the US side, it says speed limit in mile! So It’s kinda cool for me. You drive on Canada street and next 20 meters you can wave at people on the other side of street in the US.

We really enjoyed our stay in BC and hope I can go back again! The road in the pic is in State of Washington.
We put one foot in the US and one foot in Canada. Me and Dimitri
Rose, me and Godfrey
Meee
Me on green grass with Spring Dandillions

Camp Squeah, BC April 20-22, 2007

Day 3 - Camp Squeah, Hope, British Columbia

Today my main purpose of BC (British Columbia) trip started. I and another MCC workers and volunteers in BC and Alberta (AB) went to Camp Squeah in Hope. It was about 1.5 hrs drive from Abbotsford.

The retreat’s theme was focused on Eco-justice and God’s creation. We spend the weekend talk and sharing stories about God’s creation. We also had a wonderful time at night to light the fire and talk to each other. We spent our Saturday afternoon walking, hiking and visiting. We walked from the camp to the Fraser River. Dimitri, a guy from Germany brought some fishing tools but so bad that there was no fish. It was so memorable weekend cus I met nice people here and I got to play hockey! I played hockey on Friday and Saturday night. It was fun but my legs still stiff. Hehehe…

We left the camp on Sunday afternoon

Staying balance on the bar :p
Crazy act cus I got up too early just to have breakfast :p
Dimitri is trying to make me fall. On the swing with Rose and Rebekka
Camp Squeah
We are volunteers from BC and Alberta.

Top row: Dimitri, Rose, Jeise, me, Rebekka, Mweemba, Manuel, Andre, Ben
Bottom row: Eko and Godfrey

Walking to the river with Rebekka
Mweemba, Manuel, Andre
Me and Manuel
Dimitri and me

Camp Squeah

We are volunteers! Rose (Uganda), me, Mweemba (Zambia), Dimitri (Germany), Rebekka (Germany), Manuel (Germany) and Jeise (Brazil)
Hockey night
On the swing
An afternoon walk to the Fraser River

Alone in Vancouver Day 2

Day 2- Alone in Vancouver

I spent most of the day alone. I left Surrey in the morning and traveled to Vancouver by sky train. Most pictures from today are pictures of the things I saw because…u know… I traveled alone. I now realize that I am a good map reader J.
I bought a day pass for public transit. I started my day by walking on a chic and cool street, Robson Street. This is a paradise for shoppers. It is filled with nice shops, restaurants and cafes. It’s similar to Rodeo Drive in LA. I went there with my cool t-shirt that says “Shopping makes me feel better”. Then I took off for North Vancouver. I took seabus! It’s something like ferry but bigger and nice. I spend few hours in North Vancouver having lunch at Lonsdale Quay and took some pics at Water Front Park. So bad that I was alone L
I took seabus back downtown Vancouver and continued my journey on skytrain (very similar to what we got in Bangkok). I went to Metro Town, the second largest mall in Canada. I wandered around for 1.5 hours and decided that I’d better go back to Gastown to get some souvenirs. So I took skytrain back to Gastown. The miracle happened here in Gastown. I unexpectedly met my friend in a souvenirs shop! We were supposed to meet in the morning and tour Vancouver together. Unfortunately, she was late so I just left and checked in at a youth hostel. But now we met again!! Such a miracle! Now you see that shopping is not too bad. So if you lose me, find me in a shop J.
I decided to check out from the youth hostel ( I already paid L) and stayed with Gisele in her hotel. We went out for dinner at Japanese restaurant and met my big boss at her hotel. My boss was in Vancouver for a workshop. So three of us went out that evening and watched hockey game in a nice and cosy pub. SO bad that Vancouver lost but Calgary won!!

On skytrain going downtown
At Japanese resturant with Vancouver Tee :)
Downtown Vancouver from North Vancouver, Lonsdale Quay
Sunset at Stanley Park
Me on the beach in Stanley Park