From then until now

It's been a long time. Not too much has happened in the last four months. Sadly, I didn't get very far away from the city during summer. And now it's back to school time for me (which is a positive note)!


Around Town
Jeremy and I relocated to an apartment downtown which is a 15 minute walk to work (or alternatively a 3 minute train ride), so we've been able to do a lot of things around the city. And in case you're wondering, I take the train in the mornings and walk home in the afternoons.

Lilac Festival: Same thing every year. (C+)

Gay Pride Parade & Festival: Got to see some old friends and acquaintances. New parade route and venue (Olympic Plaza), which is much better than the old one. We're definitley making a name for ourselves here in Calgary. I couldn't believe how many people there were since the last time I went maybe three years ago. (B)

Mosaic Festival - mehh... the only choice of food was Ethiopian cuisine, which was ok but more variety and people would've been cool. (D)

Sun & Salsa Festival - First time I've been. Pretty neat concept of trying to find and sample all sorts of salsa with chips. Some spicy, some blah, some fruity! Lots of beer gardens to choose from! Good music and dancing! (A+)

Carrifest: The wet grass at PIP was a damper. I wish more people would've been dancing so I could blended myself in with the crowd. Great music as always though. (B)

Heritage Day Festival: A lot of cultural music and performances on stage at PIP. (B)

Calgary Fringe: I wish I had seen more plays, only got to see two. PS-69 was amazing and hillarious! Attended the film fest at Melrose... horrible choice of venue, too loud to hear anything on screen. I had to complain in the end, hopefully they'll learn better for next time. (A for effort)

Global Fest: Why do I go to these things? Too much hype and money and travel time to see fifteen minutes of fireworks. (C)

Expo Latino: New venue = more people and more excitement! HOT! HOT! HOT! Probably the best one I've attended all year. These Latinos know how to party! (A+)

C-Jazz Festival: Just finished yesterday. I was able to partake in some of the free lunch hour concerts on 8th Ave., and watched about 3 hours yesterday at Olympic Plaza. Some good, some bad. I wish they'd stop mixing rock/blues in with the jazz! I personally prefer vocal jazz over anything else, but it was all good, and all free (well the events I attended were fre)! (A-)

My Bicycle: I bought a $90 bike from Cash Converters back in June so this gets me around. I love it! (A++)


The Surroundings

Red Deer: An outing with my company's department and my first time to golf ever. Too bad it rained like crazy and I only got to do 5 holes. The evening was fun, lots of food and alcohol, its weird to get pissed with your co-workers and go to a hick bar called "Billy Bob's". We got a raincheck for the golfing and will be going again in a few weeks!

Canmore: My friend has access to this great condo equipped with a sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, etc., so hung out there a few times.

Boundary Ranch, Kananaskis: CNRL's employee day, got to white water raft along the Bow starting in Seebe. Pretty exciting!

Kicking Horse: A higher grade of white water rafting, this time with friends and camping.

Geez, that's all the places I've been this summer. Pretty sad. I've got the travel bug like you can't believe! I'm dying to get outta here!

Volunteer work

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society:


On a weekly basis (up until last week), I was a teacher aid for an ESL class of immigrants and refugees. I loved it, and hope to teach ESL at some point in my life. My career path as a social worker once I'm done school is to work with immigrants and refugees, or maybe foreign aid or international development. Something like that. I learned just as much from the students as they did from me. I loved listening to their stories and getting to know them. I'll miss them.

On my last day we coincidently went to the Calgary tower and had a little picnic overlooking the city. What a great way to end my time with them.

Get this! One of the students is from Goa, India. I briefly met him when I was there back in 2003. Not kidding. He used to do party promotions on the beaches and thus used to hand out a lot of flyers to the tourists along the shore. He moved to Canada over a year ago and we just happened to end up in the same classroom!

Drop-in Centre:
I only went twice as a food server. It's not easy work to dish out 1500 plates of food! It's crazy how many people you see in that place, it's so sad. I actually saw this guy that I used to see all the time in Boyztown. I wonder if the drugs overtook his life?

Breast Cancer:
I briefly volunteered again with the "Weekend to End Breast Cancer". They actually contacted me in May and offered me a job with them based on my work ethic from the previous year at their head office, but I had to decline. However, I went to Currie Barracks on the first day of the event and helped set up all the tents. I love watching this empty field turn into this huge campground into a matter of hours!

I'm currently enrolled in the "CIBC Run for the cure" so if anyone feels inclined to pledge me, please do so! Even $5 would be muchly appreciated! CLICK HERE

Okay, now that I've asked for your money, I've gotta run!!!