S'porean dinner gathering@ Chianti on Whyte Ave

Met up with fellow S'poreans at the Chianti restaurant on Whyte Ave, had Bubble tea before that and then adjourning to Philiana's house for chatting.. Was good to meet up with people that speak the same language as you: SINGLISH! Funny some of them go back to S'pore to do exchange at NUS when they are full time students here. But most would want to stay in Canada to work.. The food here was decent but the fellowship was GREAT! =)My pasta: Chiopino Al-Chianti
Basically just Seafood pasta, decently done but nothing to shout about really.

Ashley had the Vegetarian Lasagna

They grate the pepper..

and the cheese as well...

Athbasca Falls and Jasper Town!

The long-awaited post where I went to Athabasca Falls and Jasper Town!
Had a great time meeting the UAOC people like K-Force and Valerie. But we should have cooked though.. coz it was kinda pathetic eating Cup noodles. Its called Cabin Fever with the theme being "Lumberjack"! Shall let the pictures do the talking..

My cabin..

The interior of the cabin, warm and cozy..

Everyone has to pump water for use coz there's no running water at this hostel.
Splendid view of the Rockies Mountain just outside of the Hostel.

The majestic Athabasca Falls

Going for Snow-shoeing!After half an hour of hiking and snow-shoeing, we reach the peak with splendid view!Jasper Town

The crossing Big-horn sheep caused a big jam for the cars as they were licking off road salt.. and they are damn good climbers..see the pic below!

Exercise Physiology Lab Session

Today we had our first real lab session! And we did ergometry testing the resting HR and exercise HR as well as RER among other stuff. The screen below tells all the data of the subject performing the exercise..Packing the bed up after the resting HR of the subject is taken..TA Erin is demonstrating how to use the ergometer before the subject tries it!

It was quite a fun experience and im up for the lab next 2 weeks as the subject and i have to do the VO2 max testing! Hope i wont puke!

West Edmonton Mall's Water Park

Today we went to WEM's water park and it was quite awesome! Had the tickets from the PE office at $10 which is way cheaper than the regular price of $36. The indoor wave pool was really good and cheap thrill! We just swam there and let the waves blow us away! The rides were also a myriad of fast and twirling rides.. We can also surf.. Not bad..

Southgate Shopping Mal

The latest mall that opened last september was really quite good. Its abit like orchard ion and has quite a good array of eateries and malls. Definitely smaller than WEM, but it can still hold its own when compared to other malls.

Winter Olympics Torch Relay

I went for ultimate frisbee pick-ups at the Kinsmen Sports Centre yesterday! The atmosphere is quite cool there and teams are decked in colours and the people are really quite friendly. I wasnt supposed to play at first as the teams are full, but eventually I got a place in the white team. And managed to play quite well, scored, D-ed and make a few assists...

Playing indoors is really different and winter league's kinda disorganised as well. Hope to learn more about tactics there. I have joined the league officially and hope to be put on a friendly team.

Today the winter olympics torch relay came past the U of A. The whole university community came out in full force to support the torch bearers. There were Golden Bears street hockey, dance club, cheer-leaders and also traditional Red Indian Dancers!

Nice Floating Vehicles..

Me outside the Butterdome.

Sports @University of Alberta

I had my official first tennis lesson today! We started with easy forehand and backhand strokes. The instructor adopted a GCA method of teaching which went down very well with me. The lesson progressed fairly well and we were able to hit quite good strokes. But I really need to work on backhand and service! Today I visited many areas of the PE faculty and also watched two games of the Golden Bears and boy was it a thriller!

The indoor swimming pool was WARM which is added incentive to go and swim there cause it’s so cold now! They have few lanes that intersect one another. Oh the smell of chlorine is really strong! And people do their beginning diving lessons there as well.. Cool.

The butterdome is one amazingly big and well built structure. It is an indoor stadium with a 200m track and also badminton courts, basketball courts, tennis courts and a rock wall. The track & field team trains there as well and the courts are so versatile that they interchange for so many sports. The key distinction is tradition. You could feel it in the air and there’s so much belief that they are that good. We could really bring a lot of these back in S’pore. Last night we went to RATT(Room at the top) which is at the top floor of the SUB building for dinner. They had a beer promotion as it was the Oilers game! It went $4 per pint which was rather cheap! There was quite an atmosphere and they even have emcees and DJs to host the event. It was a rather warm and fun atmosphere! Pity the Oilers lost and everyone was quite disappointed. The puck above was given to us with a player’s no. above, if the player scored, had a foul or even FIGHTS! We could get a prize. Sadly my player was a defender and had a quiet game! This promotion is kinda fun and I haven’t had that back in S’pore.

Today I took the wrong bus and ended up in Capilano when I was supposed to go West Edmonton Mall. Haha. It took 1 and a half hour on the bus. Stupid eh! When we got there we had Vietnamese food and I had beef stew Pho which was really shiok! But expensive la as usual, worth it though! Then we headed back to butterdome to catch the Golden Bears Basketball and Ice Hockey Games. For $5bucks, we could watch both matches and we moved around to catch both to make our money worthwhile! The basketball match was really close and they look really professional! Even the people here treat it like watching a movie as they have popcorn and drinks on sale! Even the managers are decked in suits which really look like NBA man! Alas, the bears lost the game 80-84. SAD. Haha They also have the silly bear mascot who goes around to flirt with girls.

The Hockey game was equally exciting! They gave our free shirts to first 100 people! Darn.. Wasted..The shirts were really cool. The front said : “ Destroy the Dinos” and back “Friends don’t let friends go to U of C” The reason for it is because the opponents are their fiercest rivals, the university of Calgary who are in the same state of Alberta also. Thankfully, we won 6-3! Good one UofA! Then the kids were always shouting “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!” when two players squared up to each other. Haha. But they never did as the referees would intervene.

So far so good. Its really fun. Im going to send my resume to an outdoor shop to work part-time. Hopefully my experience of working in Salomon would come to good use. I will join the UofA winter league on Monday at Kinsmen! Update soon!