Flown North for the Winter

The Rocky Mountains

m-easton — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:55:00 GMT

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, which is ironic, because big things have actually happened since my last update (as opposed to nothing happening during updates.) Two weeks have passed and two weekends have been filled with the giant sized behemoth bodies of Earth known as the Rockies...and we had a run in with a bear.

So now that you know the ending, I'll run through the story in a linear fashion. The weekend before last, Nikki and I took off to a little town at the foot of the Rockies by the name of Canmore. We arrived on an overcast Friday evening, with clouds concealing the scenery, leaving us with no knowledge of what was encircling the town. After a couple of pints and dinner (which was BISON!) we found our way to the B&B we were staying at and slept. The clock struck nine and we opened the blinds to be absolutely blown away by the giant, snow-tipped mountain staring back at us. Turns out the entire town of Canmore is surrounded by the Rocky mountains (who woulda figured.) I've never been one for sight seeing, but those mountains were phenomenal...we'd be walking along a trail through the bush, through tiny waterfalls and squirrel ridden trees before finding a clearing and being gobsmacked by the mountains. They were unlike anything I've ever seen before. I want one in my room.

So other than eating lots of bison, drinking lots of beer, seeing lots of mountain, walking lots of trails and sleeping, not a lot eventful or narratable really happened...until the following weekend.

By all rights I shouldn't have been on this trip. It was a hike organised by Nikki's Biogeography lecturer (Geoff) which somehow, at the last minute, got an open invite to which I heartily took advantage of. This one was out in the Rockies again, a hike of 800metres elevation over 2km. Read: straight up. The mountain was called Mt Infatigueable. They lied. I was tired as all shit.

Several hours of moving north along the x-axis ensued before we stopped in our tracks where two deer were grazing on the side of a slope. We tiptoed past them in relative awe, watching their little flicky tails and being generally impressed and excited that we saw two deer in Canada. As if that was the Canadian experience. Cue 10 minutes as we stumble along to a clearing consisting of a dried up lake bed. The group saw some patches of snow and decided that we'd go play in it...we started walking and then were told by Geoff that the walk stops there.

I struggled a bit with that concept until I saw off in the distance this big lumbering silver-backed brown lump of a thing moving towards us. Easily the biggest thing I've ever seen in the wild...a big, fat, fuck-off Grizzly bear. (As a side note, and to talk up how big a deal this was, Geoff knew colleagues who'd worked on the Alberta Grizzly Bear Project for several years and had never seen one.) So the group action was to bundle up and walk up the side of a mountain away from vegetation where the bear wouldn't walk to. The bear (who I presume, like Yogi, was smarter than the average bear) thought little of that so continued to lumber directly towards us, following his nose which was probably attracted by Nikki's stanky dreads. The next response was to get the flip out of there and get up and out of his way, which we did successfully, only to watch him from afar walk right up to where we were sitting and start sniffing around for us.

So that was awesome...as in, one of the single most awesome things I've seen in my lifetime. It was so big. I watched it poo...its poo (which we stumbled upon on our way back around) wasn't as impressive as I hoped, but was still pretty cool I guess...you know...for bear shit.

Following that, the triumph of the mountain and the deathly descent back to base (as well as playing in the unmelted snow, dipping my head in the two degree Kananaskis River) we went to a lodge for beers, had some great chats about life, careers, music, etc where I was inducted as an honourary one day only geographer, accused of spousal abuse and told that we were a Summer of Love couple several decades too late.

...and then the bear came tearing through the lodge in a revenge attempt, kicking the door down with one swift swipe before narrowing his eyes and setting upon the group with gusto. Thankfully I was wearing my judo hat and kicked the shit out of it...and by kick, I mean carefully directed grapples in accordance with ancient judo stylings.

The end.

Things and Stuff

m-easton — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:28:00 GMT

It's been a good couple of weeks now and I'm settled and have formed a sense of attachment to Calgary already. I'm starting to speak like I know this place...I've recommended a pub in Kensington, I've walked down 17th, I understand the numbering of buildings, Avenues and Streets, I can look into a bus or train and say to myself: 'ooohh, that's right near...' and so on.

So yeah, all is well. I really like Calgary and am loving the uni here as well. However, there are some glitches with the housing set-up. It's pretty much the only real interesting thing I have to talk about, and it's not entirely travel related, so bare with me on this one. Turns out Canadians aren't so waste/energy/water conscious as we are back home...or at the very least, as I am. So far I've experienced my house mates:

- Washing an entire set of dishes with a running tap instead of filling up the sink.

- Procuring several handfuls of plastic knives and forks and using those as one use cutlery.

- Leaving every light, appliance, entertainment device, etc turned on regardless of what they're doing...TV runs while everyone's gone to bed whilst the entire house is lit up with no one home.

I once read an article by Jay Pinkerton that suggested the best way to teach your family to save energy was to gradually reduce the wattage of all the overhead lights in the household until eventually all that's left is exposed wire...thus, when they go to change the lightbulb in the dark, they learn their true lesson.

I'm starting to think that maybe it's not entirely a stupid idea.

I can grin and bare it though, they cooked antelope today...it's...well...it's very, very good. I want more. So, I suppose not much has really happened. I mean, we've played squash, had a huge shindig where we made pizza with Nikki's housemates, experienced Canada...and so on...but thus far it's just the making of plans to come.

As for those plans...we're going up to the Rockies this weekend for a couple of nights, to a place just before Banff called Canmore. Supposed to be really nice and will have some moose and deer hanging around, so that will be pretty swell. I'm also considering jumping on a plane, skipping a lecture and flying to Montreal in October to see Broken Social Scene and hang around the city for a few nights...but it's costly and completely flies in the face of the budget I wrote up in Excel...however, I reckon I can scam my way into going my convincing myself I've found a budget loophole by changing some values in the spreadsheet...so it's promising.

I've also decided that my last few goodbyes have been lacking in macho...so I'll rectify this. See you next time.

Punchtough,

Max

Beers With the French

m-easton — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 06:09:00 GMT

Last night was Friday night of Orientation week...so Canadian band Stars (of whom I've been an avid fan of for all of three weeks since I heard they were playing here at the uni) played a free gig in the ballroom. They were great live...despite the male lead being a bit of a tool and seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was balding and thus shouldn't act like Morrisey. It was strange though...it was a dry event at 5 in the afternoon...so it was a bit of a whacked out feeling walking sober out of a gig into the daylight, but there's a first time for everything.

After that, Nikki and I had been invited to a free pizza and beer night at one of the exchange co-ordinators house...for free beer. And also free pizza. There, I ate free beer. And also drank free pizza. Or something.

In fact, it was a bit more eventful than that. The guy who hosted it was the same guy who picked me up from the airport, he's uneccesarily helpful and generous...had five varieties of local beers and three varieties of cider constantly stocked on the kitchen table and a seemingly infinite supply of pizza. The pizza here in Canada is in stark opposition to the pizza at home in that it's actually good. It's tasty, full of cool shit and comes layed on absolutely massive slices. I'm a big fan.

So the night was for Exchange students past, present and potential at the University of Calgary, the crux of which were all French Engineering students. Everyone was very cool, with average to good English skills, so they laughed at all the jokes that were made...especially the ones that they didn't understand, so that was nice for the ego. Nikki fell through a table, I kept leaning on the light switch and unknowingly plunging the room from darkness and back into light again...and we put a decent dent in the beer supplies, so I think we made the most of it. I still can't quite grasp why there were so many French there, but they were all pretty funny people. I liked the Mechanical Engineer who couldn't operate a cordless drill to repair the table...I thought that was pretty amusing and ironic...but I guess you can't do up screws with a textbook.

So other than that, a stumbling departure and a slow, wobbly walk home including seeing a kid fall off his skateboard at midnight before telling us that we'd obviously been drinking and then getting into an argument as I ensured him he was a liar...little happened. Well, little happened that's mentionable in the public arena (read: we went home and fell fast asleep, allowing house-mates sufficient silence for a comfortable night's slumber.)

Today is Saturday, and again, it's ridiculously beautiful...a comfy 13 degrees and sunny as it could be. The hares are bounding around under the squirrel filled pine trees and people are out jogging past my window...tis a good day and I plan to see it, so I'm tearing myself away from the computer and thrusting myself into Calgary's Saturday afternoon.

Until next time,

Max

Gallery: Calgary: The Early Stages

m-easton — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:17:00 GMT

Still Living in Calgary

m-easton — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 12:53:00 GMT

Life has moved forward. I now have a cupboard and fridge shelf full of food, a much emptier wallet, a fuller belly and am starting to settle into the ways of life here in Calgary.

I tend to get asked what the temperature here is like more than anything else, so I'll start there. It isn't cold yet...I mean, it's nippy, by my standards, even quite nippy...I find that most of the time I have two stiff dots poking through the chest of my t-shirt and my hands are usually red, but it's not unbearable. Although, there's this feeling in the air that things are going to change for the worse very, very soon. There's some kind of dread in everyones eyes as they apply an extra layer and breath out steam clouds, but it's not getting me down at all...I'm even a bit intrigued to see how I operate at that temperature.

There's not a whole lot of news, since really I've just been pottering along trying to establish myself as a functional citizen in an independent household. The apartment is getting kinda weird...two of the guys are good friends, and since all their friends don't seem to like their house-mates AND that we have a PS3 in the house, I keep walking into the apartment to see people I don't know hanging around. I'm not sure if I like it or not just yet...beer disappears faster, and the food I've spent hundreds of dollars on sits tentatively in the fridge. So...I've formulated a way around it based off my extensive past experience as a lazy young adult. I figure the least convenient food is to get, the least likely it is to be eaten...so cheese comes in big, fat blocks...salami in big, fat chunks...yoghurt hidden under lettuce leaves, leftovers frozen or hidden in the veggie crisper...I've got all the tricks.

The fourth guy of the house hasn't been around. The other two immediately assumed he was gay (I did also, cos he probably is, but the others didn't talk to him) and I think he's picked up on it. Also, there are now posters of naked ladies in the living room adourning our walls, one of which has been sideways for some time now, so Ms Serenity has been lying down instead of leaning against a tree like it should be, but I suppose it doesn't really matter what angle an exposed breast sits at.

So other than that, things are as they were before. Nikki and I bought tickets to see Neil Young in October...that is cool...and that is all. Will keep in touch if anything fun happens.

Good things to you,

Max

Living in Calgary

m-easton — Wed, 3 Sep 2008 04:30:00 GMT

After lining up in the wrong line for 20 minutes, waiting in the correct line for 10 and then checking in for another 5, I've moved into my place. It's a neat little four bedroom ground floor apartment with a nice, wide, north bearing living room window overlooking the place where the hares and squirrels like to chill (on a sidenote: squirrels are the coolest thing I've ever seen. I just...I just love them so much.) I live with three other guys who are all 7 foot tall. One is the only cowboy on campus, the other is a biological sciences student studying Drama...the other's name is Michael. If the others weren't so tall, he'd have a distinguishing feature. They all seem like good people, especially since the first thing we did was plot how to go on a successful rabbit hunt with our bare hands.

In good news, the cowboy is working a ranch this week and will be bringing home about 11 kilos of meat for the weekend...so I'm all set for scurvy...and scurvy is wicked, cos pirates got scurvy. Yaaarrr.

Other than that, not much has really been happening. Still really struggling with the time change...I keep getting real tired when it's 4am Sydney time and wake up in the night continuously. It was also discovered last night that my bed creaks violently. All goodwill I had towards it is now ruined. Speaking of beds...I had to purchase a blanket and pillow yesterday. I didn't realise these things cost so much. I bought the most horrible cheapest things I could find and it still set me back $90...$90 for the noisiest, sweatiest, most annoying blanket I've ever owned. I just don't think that's fair when I could have easily hired a rifle, killed and skinned a bear and slept in it's skin for half that price.

As for culture shock, Canadians struggle (or are amused by) in understanding the following terms:

- Heaps good, heaps far, heaps shit, heaps bad...

- Esky

- She'll be right

- Stubbie

I get the feeling that list will be increased astronomically in the weeks to come. Pedestrian rules are whack here...if you start to cross the road in the aim of waiting for a car to drive past, they just stop. Pedestrians are GOD. There are crossings and such, but even if you decide to jaywalk, all cars freak out and just halt (or as they say here; yield.) I'm not sure if I like it as yet, but I'm still concerned when I find a crossing where I just have to start walking across the road in the hope of everyone stopping.

One dollar coins are loonies, two dollar coins are twoonies. I feel like a tool when I use this terminology.

The national beer here (Molson's) is fantastic. Not sure how I'd describe it, but relatively hoppy, but not like a real bitter Draught...probably most like Cooper's Pale, but tastes a bit like a German beer...along the lines of DAB. I'm a big fan, as are the house-mates, this pleases me.

The top three news stories on CBC's Calgary News were:

1) Shopping centres busy as students go back to school (cue 10 minutes of cute kids in snow jackets.)

2) Long weekend uncharacteristically cold...lots of campers go home early (cue farmer saying: "Ya, it's been pretty quiet eey?")

3) Political candidates hose off campaign signs as rumours of an early election being called abound (cue lots of unneccesary hose use.)

I like that it's a pretty big Canadian town, yet has the small time news feel. It feels very safe here, real nice environment, beautiful campus, beautiful neighbourhoods. I'm not convinced about the drinking life here yet...a lot of it seems to be stereotypical American 'partying'...the whole 'WOOOO! FUCK YEAH! YEAAHHH! WOOOO!" thing, but that was residence move-in and seemed to be contained to a minority.

Anyhoo, sounds like a house meeting outside...someone left Sushi out overnight. I'll write soon.

Nice things,

Max

Sydney to San Francisco

m-easton — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 10:39:00 GMT

I'm in Calgary, been here for a few days...a chilly 5 degrees outside and been drizzling all day. It's not exactly comfort weather, but it's nice as hell being inside and out of it all. As for where my head is at, it's still really struggling with the whole concept of time. This entry will be structured very poorly, so it will take some time to make sense of things. I mean, this is a postmodern recount of the last few days Citizen Kane style.

So I flew from Sydney to San Francisco...arrived in unexpected 34 degree heat, but was prepared for a Calgary night. Ended up leaving the airport and strolling in a singlet, with my jeans rolled up to my knees and shirts tucked into my pocket. Keep in mind it was 4am local time and I had zero sleep. So...from here I went down to Haight and Ashbury, a semi-famous intersection of streets which birthed the Summer of Love in San Francisco...read: Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix and Marley being played continuously in absolutely every shop I went into. After a good solid couple of hours of getting myself lost (and occasionally found) I managed to find a brewery loose enough on the legal drinking age to serve me some pretty phenomenal Draught beers which had been aged in old bourban barrels. From there I strolled forth, realised the oversized steak sandwhich hadn't quite hit the spot, and had lunch with a homeless guy by the name of Jerry at a taco place.

From here; tired as hell from two pints, a meal and an extensive chat about drugs and the government with Jerry, I strolled down to the Golden Gate Park for a nap in the sun...which lasted all of a half hour before I was woken up and offered weed. The Golden Gate Park was strange...had a bit of a festival atmosphere, little groups of people playing music, drinking beer in the sun, smoking assorted goods and generally being a helluva lot more social than what I thought would be the real America. The events from there involved lengthy discussions about a commune that pays for work with dope before I decided I best find my way towards a train station to get back to the airport. I chose the Civic Centre...which nobody told me was a complete shithole. There, I was continuously asked for money, faced with strip clubs, porn stores and fast food outlets. So I left there pretty quick...not before being asked back to a blatantly homeless man's place for a cup of coffee before my flight...but I appreciated the offer.

So now I'm in Calgary. Arrived on a pretty cosy night. The guy who picked me up from the airport was wearing shorts and a very nice, chatty Canadian guy from the Science department at uni. Got dropped off to Nikki's where we discussed the best strategy to beat jetlag...which failed, because we ended up staying up late talking instead, waking up at 7am, realising I was still an absolute wreck and then sleeping for most of the day. Unfortunately, it's now cooled and I'm ready for bed way too early...but Nikki and I are making curry in a minute, of which I'm deferring by typing too much, so I'll draw this to a close.

I'm not gonna lie...I don't really miss anyone yet. Granted, it's only been a few days, but still, I figure it's always nice to be missed though...so apologies for having a good time. Having Nikki here is a pretty good way to not get lonely as well, so I'm sure you can blame her to an extent.

Anyway, I'm off. I'll keep in touch if something interesting happens and try to avoid the whole 'and then I did this' writing style which is bland as hell.

Love and shit,

Max

Pre-departure

m-easton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:37:00 GMT

So the family dinner has been had, goodbye drinks have been forgotten, the memories of which have been stored in that hazy memory space along with all the damaged brain and liver cells...and I'm ready to go. As I write this, I look out at two empty bags that by the end of office hours will be filled with clothes...and other things I hope. I tried writing a list this morning and managed to reminds myself to bring clothes and contraceptives...and now I'm stuck. So we'll see how much I forget to bring when I'm over there.

As far as I know, everything is set. I've been going through the mundane process of photocopying documents, finding documents, trying to put my finger on what vitally important document I'm forgetting and then putting them all aside in a place I won't forget...which always manages to be the very last place you remember. So all is good other than the exchange rate which has been going southbound like geese for the winter, but I'm sure if worse comes to worse I can live off the land 'Into the Wild' style, die prematurely by poison berries and have a book and film combination celebrate my travels.

Okay, I'm off to fill my bags with things. I think you can comment on this somehow, so feel free to do so or whatever...I'll update this regularly and/or whenever I can be arsed.

Max