Chillin On A Glacier. Literally.

            Hello Banff. Tis my third day hur, we drove up on Tuesday! Eighteen hours of driving baby. Howdy. It's girl guy week, so we are all split up, the guys are in Canmore and the girls are in Banff. We had our Thanksgiving home-stay weekend, which was super nice. I'm so grateful that I live close to CMU because I got the chance to go home. People involved in the program that don't live near here, had to find a place to stay. All of them who didn't have connections close by stayed at other people's houses within our site. Which I mean would be fun, but for me I love some good alone time. I got to re-pack everything and have great food and sleep in my own bed. I got to do whatever I wanted because I didn't have to Chauffeur anyone around, and just feel comfortable at home.
            A bit of a bummer though, my parents had planned to go to Vegas that weekend for my Mum to go to a Dental Conference, before we got my schedule. They realized after that I was home and they were gone. It's alright though because we got to see each other on Friday night and have a great dinner (of steak shrimp and crab!) and then I dropped them off at the airport the next morning. Which was nice, I felt very independent!

           We had thanksgivin dinn, and such. Pretty chill weekend to say the least, there was the home opener for the Jets! Which was really fun, Kelsi and I got all dressed up in our Jets swag, and made sliders. (mini burgers) They were beyond good, even though the Jets lost...It doesn't really matter to me. At least Winnipeg has a team! WOO The next day I stayed at my cousin's house close to CMU because we had to be there super early (5 am!). We had a nice family dinner, my little cousin complained that I got his room and he had to sleep downstairs, and we watched Hawaii Five O. Great TV.The next morning I ride to CMU and we were off! Eighteen hours later, we arrived at our destination. Banff is incredibly beautiful, mountains are such a spectacular creation. A foreign creation to a Prairie Girl like myself! It's so funny because it stays rather dark in the morning at night (because it's October) but also because the mountains cast a shadow. I don't know if that's just me, but I think it should be a scientific fact. The shops are all so cute (not to mention expensive) and the mountains are just breathtaking. I do love it here, it's an awfully rich area though...it's hard to believe people live here.

                 On the first day we had a scavenger type hunt thing once again, we had to answer trivia questions about Banff and Canada, as well as complete tasks. The tasks were all pretty much just talking to random strangers and asking them about their church, about Banff like the culture there, if these people were originally from Banff or not, if not then where? Lots of stuff, as well as a photo challenge to have the best creative photo in Banff. We were split up into groups of 6, two girls from each site. There are 3 sites as you can probably tell, 2 groups of South Africa people, and one group of Guatemala people. It was super nice getting to know other girls doing the same thing as me, just with different people involved. NEAT. My group didn't win however, too bad. We did take a picture like the Beatles Abby Road Cover as our creative picture, it's pretty neat!
                        Then the next day we went on a hike up at Lake Louise. That was seriously breathtaking, in more than one way. Hiking is so not easy, continuous up hill walking is what I call a work out. Holy poop. It was so rewarding though, the views were mind-blowing. Like I've never seen before, and it really makes me question people who don't believe in God. That believe at all this beauty could just be created by fluke. We made it up pretty dang high, ate some food and then started out trek back down again. We went out for dinner in our Mentor Groups, and that was that!
                  Today we went to the Colombia Ice Fields, so pretty much I stood on a glacier for the day. Well actually, I was only on it for 20 minutes but it was so great. Once again the view was INSANE. Bonkers. We were just standing on what must have been miles of ice, with mountains all surrounding us. We had to take this explorer vehicle situation that had HUGE tires and only went like 18 miles per hour, but we were driving on ice and up and down some hills. Oye. There was some seriously crazy Asian tourists there, they kept asking for pictures with our girls and being little monsters up there. It was hilarious, very very friendly people. Well, it was mostly just young guys around us girls...haha. What are ya gonna do eh? We had a session tonight with our speaker, like the other days...I just haven't mentioned it yet. She is great and we talked about sexuality tonight, because the boys aren't around! It was really cool to hear her take on some things, and we got some real tidbits of info from her.
                I'll write again this week, I'm sure there is much much more to share later. I hear we have lots more entertainment to come!


PS I have completely lost my voice, like completely. I could speak barely at all today, and yesterday it as high-pitched squeaky and would cut out every third word. Oh dear. I've been resting it, having lots of herbal teas and drinking lemon and lime juice to cut through all the phlegm! It's gettin better though...I'll keep ya posted!

First Day Finding!

 This picture in the hotel ladies Room Completely Sums Me Up.