My flight wasn't nearly as painful as last time, which was probably due to 3 things. First of all, I didn't party until 4 in the morning the night before I left. Second, I didn't have to spend 13 hours at the airport before my flight actually took off. Last but not least, I didn't miss my connecting flight so my lay-over was a mere 3 hours long. So even though I had to clear American customs and spend my second flight bumping up and down (turbulence) next to a slightly drunk Canadian fighter pilot who kept showing me magazines about (surprise) fighter jets and Apache helicopters, I arrived in Edmonton fairly alive and kicking.
To be honest, I am living quite a relaxing life at the moment. In my first week here, I spent my days sleeping, playing guitar (and some piano), reading books and bugging Hope. Kaylee had midterms all week long, which meant I had to enjoy myself because she was either studying or at university. On Friday we (everyone except Kaylee) had a surpirise party planned because her birthday had come and gone during midterms. The party was a huge success although I think Kaylee might have lost 2 years of her life when she opened the door.
Currently, it's reading week at the U of A, which (legend has it) was mainly invented to prevent students from committing collective suicide. Kaylee and I decided to hit the mountains for two days. We got on Hotwire, booked our hotel and then checked the weather reports. I know, aren't we smart. It was -21 C without the wind chill while we were in Banff. We visited Banff Springs Hotel, which is the hotel Stephen King based 'The Shining' on and I ran into one of the kids I used to tutor in Bilthoven (it's a small world). The next day we went for a three hour hike during which we saw a moose! (Actually, we saw two, but I only caught one on video). I apologize for the fact that she's taking a leak during the video, I stopped filming before she started on her nr.2 because my hands were freezing off.
We saw people climb frozen waterfalls, but most of all, we didn't see or hear anything else than snow, forest and mountains. Our hike ended brought us to 'The Inkpots' which are supposed to have beautiful colours, but they were mainly frozen. We tried to stop walking for a minute to eat a granola bar, but it was too cold to stop moving and the water we brought turned into ice slush. Nevertheless, hiking at minus 21 is fantastic :)
Oh! And Kaylee got herself an ice-beard.
Next up: partying with Superman, moving Kendel (Kaylee's brother) to his new house and attending a baptism. And it's only -11C today, what more can you wish for?
