Exam Period

Hamilton Harbour

So the stress has begun to try and end the year on a good average in order to put me in the best position possible for the third year. With my exams varying between being worth 30%-45% it proves to be much lower than the final exams back home in the UK, where the minimum percentage is usually 50%. So trying to figure out how much revision is needed is pretty hard. Although there is a lot less content to revise, this is compensated with the numerous amounts of assignments throughout the term.

Hamilton Harbour

It doesn’t help that the sun decides to raise temperatures to 26 CE and so threatening any attempt that I make at revision. There is the “lets study outside”, but that usually ends with people lounging around, eating and drinking the coldest beverages the scarce fridge has to offer.  One of these days was inevitable and so we decided to go for a bike ride along the harbour of Hamilton. It was quite nice considering certain areas of Hamilton are pretty run down, due to the remains of the steel industry that swooped over the city during the 20^th century. The bike trail was rammed with families, runners, long boarders and roller bladders. Everyone was clearly making the most out of the weather. It was a pretty cool ride up until we come across a child throwing stones at a few ducks whilst his mother followed behind trying to take photos of him doing it. Albeit entertaining.

So the day ended with strawberry and bananas smoothies in the garden along with a pile of unopened books. Although, it is fair to say that we deserved a day off as we recently finished all our classes.  

Mairi's Smoothies

'Spring' Break Continued

Few of Quebec's oldest buildings

After a long but comfortable train ride from Ottawa we arrived in ice cold Quebec City. Since coming to Canada in September we have been warned about temperatures plummeting to -20 CE, instead we were greeted by a mild winter with the odd few days of heat. This all ended in Quebec City as temperatures ranged from a maximum of  -7 CE and a minimum -25 CE.


Before we arranged any outdoor activities, we spent some time walking around the city as well as taking a long bus journey to the Montmorency waterfall. This is where we finally experienced the knee deep snow that every Canadian friend had mentioned. It was so deep that the Aussies struggled to cope with. The all too regular "I'm cold" phrase was mentioned more times than cheese (read on). Walking around the field we stumbled across snowboarders at a park, took the chance to slide down frozen steps as well as giving the Australians a chance to make their first snow man. It basically looked like a scene from Narnia. Eventually we ended up in this village cafe where the poutine portions were too much to handle... eh Richard? He shovelled the cheese curds down like a Frenchman who has been away from France for too long. Anyway we made our way back and gorged ourselves on Swiss fondue, some more than others...Richard. The fondue itself was a bit too cheesy for my liking so I quit earlier than the others. It was ok though- Richard took one for the team and took care of the leftovers whilst discussing the prospect of a trip to Philadelphia. Ok that's enough cheese jokes.

Brie-lliant Time (Sorry last joke)

More than knee deep

Struggle

The next day we made our way to Valcartier Ice Park. I think it is fair to say that we were probably one of the oldest groups there but seriously a 80 year-old gran with two hip replacements would have had as much fun as we did. Valcartier Ice Park consists of huge steep snow covered slopes that you could either go down on your own or whilst holding onto a friends rubber dingy straps. Located amongst scenic snow-capped mountains, it was the perfect winter break activity. Sliding down was truly epic  and worth the sweaty climbs back up to the top. It was even more epic when we discovered the drag lifts, which sarah eventually mastered. The best slopes had to be the steepest, on the 8-man log rafts and the spinning rafts.

Say 'Cheese'

  

Part of the Valcartier deal was that you also gain access to the 2km outdoor ice skating trail. Even though we were made to look like complete fools on the ice by our friend Drew (Canadian pro ice-skater), it was fun to just mess around. Once we had enough of that we made our way back onto the slopes! Time management was essential. Maybe the only similarity with the 10 year olds at the park was our packed lunches.

Ended up in a pile

Surreal-Pimpin'

The following day was the day that I eventually had the chance to go dog sledding, something I had been looking forward to since applying to do an exchange year abroad. Once we geared up with more layers of wet dog smelling clothes, we braved our way out into the cold. After a quick/short talk on how to control the sleds we were on the sleds steering away in under 10 minutes in the great Canadian outdoors. Having paid little attention to the instructions that were given to Sarah and I, we quickly made away into the bushes off the clear path in front. Whilst on the sled within 2 hours it managed to snow heavily, harshly hail and beam with sunlight on a repeating loop. The route was really scenic, especially when we entered wooded areas. Eventually we fell off the sled, having saved my camera from the fall, we had to quickly get up and chase the dogs in order to stop them from running off. After playing with the pups it was sadly over and so was our trip to Quebec City. Overall it was a wicked spring break and I made the right decision to go Cold.

Canadian Winter break

P.s A big merci to our French tour guide Arthur, albeit overpriced :D

'Spring' Break?

Ottawa, Canada!

Since the beginning of exchange one question that everyone kept asking was "What shall we do for spring break?". At first we all agreed upon going somewhere hot as we dreaded the perils of the coming winter. Somewhere hot basically meant Mexico or Cuba. Eventually the majority decided that we should brave the cold and get the full Canadian experience! After all we are studying here so we should make the most of it. Plus Selin had just bought her Canada Goose jacket, so she desperately wanted to get her monies worth and Nic had come prepared with an array of winter boots hahaha!

Traditional Native Games

The day arrived where we would once again make the short trip to Toronto in order to catch our bus to Ottawa. This was probably one of the funniest bus trips I've been on. It involved late wake-ups (Mairi), sickness/hungeroverness (Mairi), wrong tickets (Myself and Alison), running around Toronto working up a sweat to print off the actual ticket (Me) and a pacing drug addict at the back of the bus (drug addict). After a lot of trouble, we made it to Ottawa. Considering Ottawa is the capital of Canada, it is quite small. One of the main attractions of Ottawa in the winter is the chance to ice-skate on the worlds longest naturally frozen river! Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late into the winter season to be be able to ice-skate but we did manage to experience the last day of the winterlude! This included native dances, spiritual songs, ice sculpture competitions, free green tea and various pieces of art and history! 

Getting native in a Teepee


After a few beaver tails (no pun intended-its actually a fried pastry dessert) we made our way around the historical parliament buildings of Ottawa and into a deli shop which Barack Obama had recently visited at ByWard market. The stay was brief but just long enough to see what Ottawa had to offer.

 
Chilling at Backpackers Inn

We had a chilled evening in the basement of the hostel after handling a shushing row with the another group upstairs. This was the evening Richard had "An interesting theory".

 

Beaver's all round!

The next stop was Quebec City!!!