Calgary
Yes! It's finally come true: I'm actualy in Canada now. I landed in Calgary last saturday evening from Amsterdam, where I was suprised by having both my parents, my sister and my brother, all with partners and children drop by to see me off. I guess they wanted to be sure I'd really left the country :-) Anyway, after a nine hour long, rather uneventfull flight, I stepped on Canadian soil for the first time. Awsome.
One of the things with flying West is that your day ends up being quite a bit longer than your body expects it to be. So, I was spend when I arrived at the Youth Hostel, even though the sun was still shining brightly. I found out the next morning that the downside to tugging in early is that you're fully awake early too, so around 6AM I was up and about, wondering what the hell to do at that time on a sunday... It took untill 8 or so before I headed into town. I started out by getting a nice overview of the city from the Calgary tower, after which I just wondered around. The city center was pretty dead, but it was nice to hang out on Prince' s Island (a park on an island in the Bow river.) I headed into Kensinton, which is actually quite nice. Dropping into an internet café got me an email by Aaron Siego, a KDE developer based in Calgary whom I send an email just before I left home. We met up to get something to eat and a couple of beers afterwards, and we had a nice conversation about KDE, technology and the differences between Europe and North America. I also got to meet his son Peyton, a very nice little fellow. So... good day all in all!
may 16
Today, it was time to get to see some of Calgary's sights. Unfortunatly, the Heretage Park is still closed, so I made due with seeing Ford Calgary to learn something about Calgary's history. After that, it was time to visit the Zoo, but I decided to get a cup of tea in Inglewood first. At the deck of the pub, I met a couple of people that turned out to be local glider pilots. What are the odds? Anyway, it turns out there are three glider sites within a 100km radius of the city! There' s also one near Edmonton, so who knows, I' ll be able to check that club out when I get there.
The Zoo was pretty good, and quite big too! I spend most my time in the Canadian section, trying to get a feel of what I might run into later on. Those Grizly's are pretty big....
Tonight, I got to know the benefits of being in cattle-land: great steaks!
If all goes well, I'll go checking out the dinosaurs at Drumheller tomorrow. Let' s see how that goes....
may 17
Well.... it didn't go. And neither do they tomorrow. *sigh* Anyway, thursday the trip will go on, so thursday it is.
Today I spend most of my time on or around the Campus of the university of Calgary. Quite a nice campus by the way! Twente, eat your heart out... I tried to get a look at the Olympic Oval, but it was closed. I did get to point out a mistake in one of the displays though, where they interpretted the "zaterdag" on the page of the Algemeen Dagblad article on Whotherspoon as the title of the newspaper. You'd think it doesn't sound that different from "saturday", right?
During my walk back to the C train station, I ended up in the Social Sciences building, looking for postings on interesting positions. I did not find any, but I did find a leaflet on a program they offer called "Science and Technology Studies". That sounds an awfull lot like what I did, so I wondered into an office to get some more information on work opportunities with that group. I ended up with an appointment with the associate Dean, with whom we came to the conclusion that my masters is a perfect match for what is being done there. He refered me to another professor there. I send him an email, to try to get an appointment with him. Who knows... They do offer a Phd program, but it's supossed to be "highly compatitive". Well, we'll see what happens.
The rest of the day I spend getting to the airport to see the aviation museum, but I ended up there too late. So, I wondered around the airport a bit, and then headed back to town. The busride from campus to the university did give me a nice impression of the suburbs though.
This night, I met a couple of Dutch girls in the hostel, who were traveling from Vancouver where they did an internship. They were really nice, and we rented a movie from the hostel to watch on the big screen. The movie turned out to be rather dull, but the evening was still nice.
may 18
After a tip from the girls, I decided to go and see the Olympic park today. The park houses the bobsled run, the ski jumps and the downhill skiing facilities. There is also a nice museum that displays something about the history of the Olympic Winter games and about the games in Calgary in 1988 in particular. The staff was very friendly, and I ended up having my picture taken holding an original torch at an honor podium. Also, I had my picture taken with one of the jackets of the Dutch equippe from that year.
From the ski jump tower, you really get an excellent view over the city. It's actually a higher point than the Calgary Tower that I visited before. Nice visit.
Afterwards, I traveled back to the other side of the city, to try again to visit the Aeronautical Museum. This time I was there at a decent time, so I wondered around a bit in there. There were some very nice artefacts on display. One of the aircraft they had hanging from the ceiling intrugued me. It was a sailplane that I did not recognize. Since there was no sign for it, I asked a member of the staff. He dug up a folder with the information on this glider. It turns out it is a mix of two other types.... Figures...
One of the things with flying West is that your day ends up being quite a bit longer than your body expects it to be. So, I was spend when I arrived at the Youth Hostel, even though the sun was still shining brightly. I found out the next morning that the downside to tugging in early is that you're fully awake early too, so around 6AM I was up and about, wondering what the hell to do at that time on a sunday... It took untill 8 or so before I headed into town. I started out by getting a nice overview of the city from the Calgary tower, after which I just wondered around. The city center was pretty dead, but it was nice to hang out on Prince' s Island (a park on an island in the Bow river.) I headed into Kensinton, which is actually quite nice. Dropping into an internet café got me an email by Aaron Siego, a KDE developer based in Calgary whom I send an email just before I left home. We met up to get something to eat and a couple of beers afterwards, and we had a nice conversation about KDE, technology and the differences between Europe and North America. I also got to meet his son Peyton, a very nice little fellow. So... good day all in all!
may 16
Today, it was time to get to see some of Calgary's sights. Unfortunatly, the Heretage Park is still closed, so I made due with seeing Ford Calgary to learn something about Calgary's history. After that, it was time to visit the Zoo, but I decided to get a cup of tea in Inglewood first. At the deck of the pub, I met a couple of people that turned out to be local glider pilots. What are the odds? Anyway, it turns out there are three glider sites within a 100km radius of the city! There' s also one near Edmonton, so who knows, I' ll be able to check that club out when I get there.
The Zoo was pretty good, and quite big too! I spend most my time in the Canadian section, trying to get a feel of what I might run into later on. Those Grizly's are pretty big....
Tonight, I got to know the benefits of being in cattle-land: great steaks!
If all goes well, I'll go checking out the dinosaurs at Drumheller tomorrow. Let' s see how that goes....
may 17
Well.... it didn't go. And neither do they tomorrow. *sigh* Anyway, thursday the trip will go on, so thursday it is.
Today I spend most of my time on or around the Campus of the university of Calgary. Quite a nice campus by the way! Twente, eat your heart out... I tried to get a look at the Olympic Oval, but it was closed. I did get to point out a mistake in one of the displays though, where they interpretted the "zaterdag" on the page of the Algemeen Dagblad article on Whotherspoon as the title of the newspaper. You'd think it doesn't sound that different from "saturday", right?
During my walk back to the C train station, I ended up in the Social Sciences building, looking for postings on interesting positions. I did not find any, but I did find a leaflet on a program they offer called "Science and Technology Studies". That sounds an awfull lot like what I did, so I wondered into an office to get some more information on work opportunities with that group. I ended up with an appointment with the associate Dean, with whom we came to the conclusion that my masters is a perfect match for what is being done there. He refered me to another professor there. I send him an email, to try to get an appointment with him. Who knows... They do offer a Phd program, but it's supossed to be "highly compatitive". Well, we'll see what happens.
The rest of the day I spend getting to the airport to see the aviation museum, but I ended up there too late. So, I wondered around the airport a bit, and then headed back to town. The busride from campus to the university did give me a nice impression of the suburbs though.
This night, I met a couple of Dutch girls in the hostel, who were traveling from Vancouver where they did an internship. They were really nice, and we rented a movie from the hostel to watch on the big screen. The movie turned out to be rather dull, but the evening was still nice.
may 18
After a tip from the girls, I decided to go and see the Olympic park today. The park houses the bobsled run, the ski jumps and the downhill skiing facilities. There is also a nice museum that displays something about the history of the Olympic Winter games and about the games in Calgary in 1988 in particular. The staff was very friendly, and I ended up having my picture taken holding an original torch at an honor podium. Also, I had my picture taken with one of the jackets of the Dutch equippe from that year.
From the ski jump tower, you really get an excellent view over the city. It's actually a higher point than the Calgary Tower that I visited before. Nice visit.
Afterwards, I traveled back to the other side of the city, to try again to visit the Aeronautical Museum. This time I was there at a decent time, so I wondered around a bit in there. There were some very nice artefacts on display. One of the aircraft they had hanging from the ceiling intrugued me. It was a sailplane that I did not recognize. Since there was no sign for it, I asked a member of the staff. He dug up a folder with the information on this glider. It turns out it is a mix of two other types.... Figures...
posted by André Somers at 6:34 PM
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