Finally in Tarsus

It feels so great to be in Turkey again.  If nothing else, I'm tickled pink to be in 20 degree weather while it's -25 degrees in Edmonton.  We left Latvia yesterday morning after a quick morning walking tour of the Art Nouveau architecture.  We had a few hours in Istanbul to visit the spice market and pick up left luggage at the hotel before a night flight back to the south of Turkey.  Then it was a short shuttle bus to Tarsus!  Carole's apartment is incredible, and I met three of her friends tonight for a game night.  We've also picked up her cat, Charlie, (who I already love) and started to decorate the living room for Christmas.  Pictures to come.  And I also need to put up pictures and stories from St. Lucia Day in Sweden... it was perfect.  Tomorrow I'm going to class with Carole, mostly so I can appreciate what a tough job she has (I'm not arguing, though!)

Quick Update

Scandinavia is fabulous. Carole and I are having a blast. Carole's camera memory card died, I loaned mine to her, and therefore, all of these pictures were taken by her. Her camera is better, I have to agree. Anyway, we're a bit low on snow, but we have enough Christmas spirit to make up for it. Tonight we're staying in the best hostel! It's a prison that was closed in the 1970's and converted into a hostel and hotel. We have a cute cell with bunk beds and the nicest ensuite. The prison is on an island in the middle of Stockholm, so it involves a bit of walking but it's worth it! Tonight we went to see the Swedish version of the Nutcracker. All the same music but with a storyline that follows a Swedish children's tale. It was wonderful. Tomorrow we head to the outdoor museum where we see traditional Swedish life and culture. It's St. Lucia Day too! Here are some more pictures from Denmark...

Istanbul

We made it! Istanbul is fabulous, but we're taking of for Denmark this afternoon. More pictures to come.

Oh No

My weather pixie says it's -17C. Oh dear. Do you think I'll make it walking all the way to school?

More Christmas Spirit

Last weekend I went to a Christmas festival with a couple of friends from my program. It was very Christmas-y, but was full of young families. That's good in a way, it's fun to watch kids enjoy Christmas, but I get really frustrated by slow moving clumps with thousands of strollers in an enclosed space. The trees were gorgeous though, all decorated by businesses or individuals (the whole festival is a fundraiser for a hospital).
My favourite one had a cookies & sweets theme!
And there were some pretty impressive gingerbread houses...
And for a dollar, you can decorate your own gingerbread man! Amy is demonstrating.

Christmas is Coming

(First of all, a note. I have a lot of pictures of myself on this blog. This is not an ego thing, I was just told by my family that they like seeing pictures of me, and I always like seeing pictures of the authors of the blogs I read, so I just want to make the reader(s) happy!)
I'm inching towards some Christmas spirit, but it's largely overshadowed by panic. I'm leaving for Turkey in less than ten days. I think I can get everything done, but it's going to be a tight fit! Besides oral presentations and an intimidating "Best Practices in Teaching Grammar" paper, I have Christmas lunches and dinners, Carole's shopping list, a to-knit list and, of course, I need to travel plan for Sweden and Denmark (I got the guidebooks out of the library, now I just have to figure out how many castles and museums we can fit into a limited number of days!) Yesterday I got tickets for Carole and I to see the nötknäppare in Stockholm (any guesses as to what that is? Clue: it's a ballet!) Anyway, I think I better get back to reading. Here are some pictures from the other night.My friend, Amy (also in the TESL MEd program) and her family took me to the Bright Nights outdoor lights festival. We walked around a park full of whimsical light displays.

Random Tales

You can always count on a blog post when I'm procrastinating! I have two huge papers due on Monday, so I will take this opportunity to update my blog. Besides the paper writing, life in Edmonton is pretty routine. My days revolve around classes, articles and hot beverages (Caramel Apple Spice at Starbucks, anyone?) It's getting colder here (-10C) but still no real snow. I went on a Christmas shopping excursion yesterday and creating some Christmas cheer for under $15. All the ornaments were hot glued from dollar store kits; it's hard to see but they all have jingle bells on the bottom.
Carole's in Monaco today. I have to admit I wish I were there too! I heard all of her Switzerland tales yesterday, and the day before we chatted on facebook. It's always fun when we chat online because we think the same way. In about 10 minutes of typing, we typed the same thing at least five times. Either I would ask a question and she would answer it at the same moment or we would both make the same comment simultaneously (followed, of course, by us both typing "jinx" in the same minute). I love being a twin!

Banff Part 2

Well, I assume most of my readers (aka my family) have seen these photos on facebook. But just to add some colour to my blog, here they are again. Banff was great. It's a very busy time with school, but I came to the conclusion that in five years I will not care if I get an A or a B in this class (seeing as I've decided I definitely will not be doing a PHd in my lifetime) but I would always remember a fabulous weekend in the Rockies with friends. And I'm so glad I went. I was so relaxed and everything was so fresh. The greyhound there and back was uneventful and the tickets were cheap with my student card. I stayed with Louise and her friend Anne-Marie (also Australian, they've been friends since childhood) in an adorable cottage right in "downtown" Banff. It was so nice to return to a warm cabin, drink coffee on the couch and laugh over an old movie or reality show. We did a lot of walking and window shopping in town and had some delicious meals. Thankfully, Anne-Marie, Louise and I are all alike in our love for good food and eating out! The other highlights of the weekend included ice skating (next time I go I want to go ice skating outdoors) and visiting the Banff hotsprings at night. The weather was a few degrees below zero, but the water was 38.7 Celcius. Perfect. Plus, I got to rent the cutest "historic" swimsuit to wear (something like the one on the sign).And, of course, I couldn't go to the Rockies without climbing a mountain. Well, actually, I would have been very content to visit the Rockies without climing a mountain! But Louise told us it only took about 20 minutes to climb up and 20 minutes back down so I agreed (plus we decided we could go to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch afterwards since we would have burned off all the calories in advance!) Turns out that Tunnel mountain was not quite as quick as she remembered (the guidebooks online suggest 2-3 hours!) We stopped for lots of water breaks and photo breaks, and I have to admit it wasn't too painful. Plus, we made it to the top and the view was beautiful. Here's the proof:

Banff

I am in Banff for the weekend visiting Louise and Anne-Marie! The town is beautiful, and it's exciting to experience the Rockies for the first time. More adventures to come, and I'll put up some pictures and stories when I'm back in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Main street in Banff

The pool at the famous Fairmont Hotel

He at the famous Fairmont hotel! Louise worked here for a while, but will be working at a restaurant at a ski resort as soon as the snow starts.

Canadian Finals Rodeo

Yes, I went to see the rodeo. I couldn't help myself. I got a vastly discounted ticket (under $10) and I figured this might be my one and only chance. I also got to see all the cowboy hats and boots that I had been (naively) expecting before my arrival in Edmonton. It was certainly an entertaining night. In case you currently find yourself in a foreign country, a metropolitan city or anywhere outside midwest North America, here is a movie to give you the whole experience. Six different events were included, bull riding is the last one on the video. If you are watching this on a public computer, you may want to turn down the sound a bit first!

See, don't you wish you lived in Alberta?

Finished Results

Having completed my hat and afghan, I feel I've earned the right to display some pictures. I'm especially proud of my quick knit hat (a design I adapted) The best part is, it's just a rectangular square you knit then fold in half and sew up (so that the points will cover your ears)! Then I cabled the trim along the front, back and little side bits. The pattern on the main part was something I added to give it a bit of interest, and I decreased the stitches at the top so it would not have the elf-like point (which always makes me look like an idiot).











And my afghan, which became more of a lap blanket after I ran out of yarn. Basic granny squares with a cute little scalloped edge. The colours don't come out properly in this picture, but you get the idea.
If you think those colours are pretty, have a look at my new yarn (for the fair isle hat-scarf-mitten extravaganza)!

Tea and Crochet

It's been a crazy couple of days. Way too much mental energy required! I had my first grad school midterm on Monday, which I did pretty well on I think. It was on the statistics component of my Assessment for ESL course, and the combination of my understanding of the material and my savvy test taking skills served me well. Other than that, I've been busy with answering hundreds of questions (literally) from undergrad students about the assignment coming up in the assessment course I TA for. It is a satisfying feeling to always have the answer, though! I had to laugh on their midterm, a majority thought the word "deleterious" meant "to delete." Something like Use of nose sprays may have a deleterious affect on... the sinus. Students were supposed to write why it was a bad test item, and many wrote "Well, obviously you can't delete your sinus, so it's a clue for the students." Ha. Actually some of the graders didn't know what deleterious meant, so I probably shouldn't have found it quite so funny. A sales pitch: at the end of a long day, on my cold walk home in the dark, I always take comfort in the anticipation of my cup of tea. I've never been a real tea lover, but I have found the perfect tea. If you are in need of a comforting, relaxing, warming tea, go buy this (it only costs $1.90 for the box, so it's low risk). It tastes a lot like the heavenly tea they serve at Aveda salons, and I never realized that it is licorice root! It doesn't taste a thing like black licorice flavour, don't worry. It has an unusual aftertaste that feels like warmness in your throat for a few seconds. Yum. That's all for now.

The Chill Has Set In

I'm freezing in Edmonton. On my walk to school this morning I thought my hands were going to fall off. Yes, I was stupid for not wearing mittens, but how was I to know? The problem with living in an apartment building is that, by the time you realize you've misjudged the weather, you're out of time to go back and change. (At this point someone will comment that I could step out on the balcony. True.) I have been frantically knitting a fabulous toque with earflaps (just wait till you see the picture- my own design!) and I have a fair isle toque, scarf, mitten combo in mind next. I went a bit overboard on my last trip to Michaels, but all the yarn was so gorgeous! I love cable knitting and fair isle- I'm always amazed that following those silly little directions results in something so beautiful.

Anyway, yesterday was Thanksgiving!! I had gone to the store and picked up my very own Thanksgiving feast. It might have been a bit overboard, but this is only my second Thanksgiving in Canada since 1999! I'm not much for cooking (I hate things that take time to prepare) so I bought the cheaters supply of Thanksgiving goodies:
Delicious! I didn't actually get to eat my food on Thanksgiving day, though. My friend Amy from the TESL program called to invite me to her family's house for dinner! Thoughtful, eh? It was an amazing meal and no one in their family likes brown meat so I got to bring the leftovers home (or they were going to feed it to the pets). They had three cats and two dogs. Two of the cats were lovely. The kitten could fetch! If you sat on the bed and threw a hair elastic onto the wooden floor, she would pounce down, run over, pick it up in her teeth and bring it right back to you on the bed! Without fail! I was amazed. One of their cats was so sick though. He has seizures which have caused blindness and sometimes he just lies around so lethargically. He didn't really move, couldn't keep his balance and kept tucking his paws under him in awkward ways (the vet said he can't feel pain). The poor boo. As for the dogs, one was okay, the other was a demon dog. Seriously. Would not stop barking when they put him in a bedroom. The let him out and he ran around barking (or staring at me menacingly). He was short, squat and looked like some kind of science fiction creature (pug face, severe underbite, bulgy black eyes, oversized pointy ears). I survived the ordeal thankfully. By the way, I took my camera but I didn't get to take any pictures. I'll try to get a picture of the demon dog and a video of the fetching cat for you eventually!

Louise's Visit

In the middle of last week, Louise sent an email saying that her boss had given her Friday and Saturday off. She took the greyhound bus up from Banff and we had a great two days bashing around Edmonton. I made a decision to forget about schoolwork for two days (thankfully I have this week before Thanksgiving to catch up) and we both just relaxed. Well, not relaxing in the normal sense. We packed as much fun, shopping, talking and action into 40 hours as is possible! I picked her up at the bus station around 6am on Friday and I took her to my focus group to take notes (she had the hard job!)
The focus group went really well: it was basically just talking with international students about the issues they face listening and speaking in the classroom.
Then we took off to West Edmonton Mall for a shopping fiesta. The main purpose was buying a ton of snowboarding gear for Louise's winter adventures (cheaper here in flat Edmonton than in the tourist-y ski resort town of Banff).
I had to try it on! I don't think I have a future in snowboarding, eh?
Friday night we had bangers and mash at an Irish pub (yum) and Saturday morning we went into downtown Edmonton. We started at Chinatown, but were shocked by the lack of anything in Chinatown. Seriously! A big archway and one restaurant were about it.

We walked along the river and took some fall pictures then had a great Vietnamese lunch (as good as food can get!) In the afternoon we did some more shopping then back to my apartment for Chicago-style deep dish pizza. We decided to see a movie that night, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which we really enjoyed. Then I dropped Louise off at the bus station, and we both went back to reality. Hopefully I can go visit her soon and try out her snowboard? Or maybe just take my ice skates and find a lake somewhere.

Elections

I'm supposed to be doing some statistics homework, but I felt it was my civic duty to procrastinate by researching the upcoming election. I think I'll need to vote by mail for the Halifax district, and it looks like it will be a much more exciting race than Edmonton. Did you know that 28 of 28 districts in Alberta are currently Conservative? It's strange and a bit worrisome if you ask me. I haven't decided who I want to vote for, but the idea that an entire province of people hold exactly the same political beliefs is like something out of a sci-fi movie. Anyway, a quick overview of the websites of the candidates for Halifax was confusing. Does it seem to anyone else like they are all saying the same thing? Can anyone recommend a website, newspaper or magazine to help me sort through the wish-washy political jargon?

Pictures

I know everyone likes a blog post with pictures, right? Well I've been trying. I keep throwing my camera in my backpack and hoping I'll come across an inspiring vista or small item of beauty. Not yet. In the mean time, here are a couple I thought you might be interested in.
I took this picture in a mall in downtown Edmonton this morning. I was shoe shopping (it's getting way too cold for flipflops) and stopped here for a Tim's coffee. I guess this kind of gives you an idea of Edmonton downtown- lots of space, very few cars and short office buildings.
This is officially the dining room table of our apartment. But, because I don't have a desk in my "room", I use it for most of my computer work or studying. Cozy, isn't it?
And lastly, this very strange, moderately depressing picture is of me in my "office." This is where I have TA office hours for an hour on Tuesday and Thursday morning. Students can come if they have questions, but so far it's just been one student per morning. By the way, that's Seattle's Best Coffee! Now brewing at Mac's convenience store!

Random Pictures

These pictures are mostly for Carole (I'm not sure who else cares?) Yesterday I was sitting at my desk working hard at the reading I needed to do for class on Monday. I started chatting with Carole on Skype and happened to mention that I was trying to talk myself out of going to West Edmonton Mall. Normally my self-discipline would win out, but Bath and Body Works had just opened (first stores in Canada ever!) Carole, being the dependable sister she is, insisted that I drop everything and rush out to the mall. So I did. And Bath and Body Works was a scent-filled paradise. I got two shower gels and three hand soaps all for $28! I think it seems cheap because the exchange rate has changed so much since I used to shop for the products in the states, and that Alberta only has 5% tax. I am now taking orders (if you live outside of Edmonton or Toronto).
I found a new jewelry tree! How can I live without my jewelry tree? (it was too wide to bring home from Australia)
I'm learning the basics of statistics in my ESL Assessment class. We were supposed to get a scientific calculator, and I was was much more excited about finding a "pretty" one than I should have been! All the other ones were boring and grey, though.
New shoes (Carole will be jealous!)

It Makes Me Smile

Note: please don't take the following post too seriously. I really don't know much about what I'm talking about, it's just my opinion at the moment. And I hope all my American friends know that I'm not talking about you!

It's no secret that I am fascinated by American politics; I think it comes from all the American history/government courses Carole and I took. This race is going to be one of the highlights of my fall! I find it entertaining and enlightening. I remember watching Barack Obama give a speech while I was living in Illinois. I'm really fuzzy on when exactly it was, but I think it must have been during the 2000 Presidential elections (the whole Gore/Bush confusion) because there were a lot of us sitting in the lounge watching the political news. Anyway, it was a great speech! Here was this guy with great ideas and inspiration who seemed bipartisan and international, and I remember thinking "Why don't they make this guy president?" And now there is finally the sense that maybe, just maybe, if he is elected, America will be able to salvage the threads of their reputation around the world. Although it doesn't seem like many Americans care about that! Anyway, when it comes to the Republicans, I am beginning to think that, if they are elected, we might as well just give up on the US. I've found the policies, opinions and beliefs of the American government (and average Americans) disturbing and sometimes terrifying over the last few years. And if America is crazy enough to elect copies of the previous administration, then it really is the fall of the Roman Empire. And the Sarah Palin element is mind-boggling to me. I read an article in last week's Globe and Mail that really explained it well and was fun to read. My favourite fact? She got her first passport last year, and she's going to be meeting foreign heads of state and influencing foreign policy! And then this morning I watched this news clip from Yahoo news. Hilarious. I was laughing out loud. I know Carole will get it, but I hope everyone can understand how crazy some Americans are! I'm so proud to be Canadian, and the Canadian reporter they talk to in the clip should get a bonus (you can tell he was rolling his eyes at the nutcase American broadcaster). I guess the point to all this is that, as much as I like watching the US elections for the drama, I am so, so glad for our Canadian elections! I guess I should decide who I want to vote for, eh?

Travel Plans

I know that I've only been in Canada for three months or so, but I'm already planning my next trip! My excuse is that Carole needs someone to come visit her in Turkey and bring her winter clothes. Instead of spending a small fortune to fly to Nova Scotia during Christmas peak times, I decided to go for a trip to Istanbul instead! And (because Carole needs a vacation too) we booked a side trip to Scandinavia. It was a toss up between that and Egypt, but we decided to go for the Christmas-y option! We'll spend a few days in Copenhagen, Denmark then take the train to Stockholm, Sweden. On the way back we'll have a night in Riga, Latvia. Both Copenhagen and Stockholm have outdoor Christmas markets and special Christmas traditions and food. We'll even be in Sweden for St. Lucia day!!!
But, more practically, life is going well here in Edmonton. I'm very happy in my cozy 9th floor apartment with two great (quiet, clean & nice) roommates. I've only had a week of classes, but I'm already busy. My TA job takes up a lot of my focus: tonight I'm working on learning outcomes for a grade 11 assessment for English Language Arts. How would you compare and contrast Romeo and Paris in Romeo and Juliet? Most of it is just re-typing things, but I actually have to think up an answer for that one. I'll freely admit my dependence on Spark Notes!