On to Calgary...The first few days

I headed off to Calgary on an early morning flight without knowing if my brother would be there to pick me up at the airport. He didn't. So I taxied my way to his place only to find it locked and the weather bitterly, bitterly cold. (It probably wasn't that bad but 13C in the summer is wrong and I had only one long sleeved sweater with me.) I stashed my bags next to the garage and made my way downtown to his restaurant to see if he was working. He was. He appologized for not picking me up by paying for my beer and ceaser salad. That night we went out shopping so I could get a winter parka, had dinner at an amazing restaurant and then caught the Simpsons Movie.

The next night after some heavy duty shopping (more sub-artic wear), I met up with Gray to have a full on Canadian night. We stopped off at the Beer store to share a case of Pil and went to his place to play Trivial Pursuit. While hanging out I learnt that Amy was now Grey's wife having just gone to Las Vegas for a Chapel wedding. From the pictures I saw it looked like they had a great time but I wish Elvis had led the ceremony. As for the game, it was a tight one but once he stopped getting the easy Canadiana questions I caught up and won the game. I am officially a genuis (until we play again.)

Another night I met Jess and Chris up at the University for some beer and dinner before they went off to play soccer. (This is a team I want to play for.) It was a good visit but over too soon. I was supposed to meet up with Jess again later in the week but had to ditch because I physically couldn't stay awake after a long day in Banff. I wish I had taken a picture of her and Chris but I always get self-conscious about taking pictures in public in Canada because nobody really does it. Here in Korea there isn't a day that goes by that I don't see someone snapping away at something.

I did get this picture of the main entrance to the University as walked up to meet them. Ahh the memories.

I got this one once I left to catch the C-Train. I studied mostly in this building and still don't understand the "art" up on the hill.

Brandon...The Sights

Admittedly Brandon doesn't have any real sights if a teacher were to lable it, they'd use the "needs improvement" tag. This didn't stop us from going out and filling our days with stuff to do.

The front page news was that a "Show n' Shine"/"Shine n' Show"/"Salivate'n Spit" show was in town the August Long Weekend. Dad and I handed over our money to wander around the thousands of cars. It was pretty cool but like any kid not really all that into it, my highlight was slurping on the Rootbeer Float we bought.



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On the Sunday of the long weekend, Dad took Greg and I out to the Brandon "Hills". He was our sherpa lugging our water for us as he showed us around the area he goes cross-country skiing in during the winter.



Greg made the mad dash to the highest hill. It was in the parking lot.

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Another day we went to the British Commonwealth Trainning Museum out at the Brandon airport where pilots came to train during WWII. It sounded like a cool bit of history and there were pockets of information I did enjoy. Unfortunately I left with two thoughts stuck in my mind.

One: The museum was twice the size of the airport.
Two: This museum was trying hard to stay exciting but if your signs are printed by someone plucking away on a typewriter maybe it's time to update the place.

Luckily, to make up for the musuem well past it's expiry date there was a military plane busily dropping loads out of it's backside as it used the vacant airport as it's training ground.



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On this day we went down to the Assiniboine river to walk along it's banks. Unfortunately, there is only one pedestrian bridge crossing on the river so once we reached the main park we had to double back to get to the car.




It may sound like I'm taking the piss out of Brandon and I am but all the daytrips I did do were fantastic because of the people I was with.

Almost Normal

My summer vacation has come to an end. It was a great month off and a break I desperately needed. I got back to Korea on Friday and immediately wanted the cold weather I was complaining about in Canada. Here it is still in full summer mode with humidity levels worse than when I left and temperatures that still hang out around the dirty thirties.

What sucks about this weather is that ever since I got back I have been running around the city. Early Saturday morning a moving crew arrived to pack up my whole apartment and move me into my new place in Sillim. Seeing as I was paying for this move, I barely helped out but still managed to be covered in a full body sweat all day long. It was a long weekend getting the place organized and I am almost done and will post pictures soon.

After spending the whole weekend battling jet lag and moving, my body ached as I came into work on Monday. Setting foot into the school it suddenly dawned on me that the new English/Computer lab was finished and I had another day of moving and organizing my classroom ahead of me. Luckily the students were here only long enough to help me carry all my stuff up three flights of stairs (the new elevator is a week away from being finished). It was a sweaty affair and at lunch the Principal once again showed why I love my job by sending me home early to rest. By tomorrow I should be back into a routine and then I will start posting all about my trip home this summer.

Brandon...The People

Here are the sober pictures of most of the gang that came out to my parents place for August long weekend.

Mom, Wendy, Pat and Grandma posing for a picture between Caeser's.

Bud (Not his real name, Manitobans have a thing for nicknames. In our family alone there is a Bud, Tub, Biff (that may be a real name), Goober, Slim, Girt, Bunky, Chewy and couple of others I'll remember in time-Mike and Chandel.) and Pat.

Bud, Brad, Marlin and Dad all quietly praying the deck doesn't choose today to collapse.

The Brooks crew returning home before Chandel has the chance to celebrates her 16th birthday in an unsupervised house.

Nicole, Mom, Darlene, Greg and Dad hanging around the Barbecue smells after being smoked out from the poisonous fumes of the insect repelent.

Brandon...The Setting

Here's where I've been the last two weeks. It's my parents house and it looks all nice and inviting but it's not. Inside there is an evil woman who has cupboards full of bad food and a man who stocks the fridge with beer. A combination that insists on making me lazy and fat.

Here's the view when I turn around. This place is in the middle of nowhere. The only things to hear your screams are flies, mosquitoes, hummingbirds, finches and the odd rabbit passing by.

Slave labour is enforced by Toby who controls the back garden with a mean bark.


Mom working the pea garden.

Dad toiling away on one of his many make work projects.

Bottom 10

10 reasons why a summer vacation at my parents' place is bad:

Dial up Internet is just cruel. No person should ever have to live this way.
Jogging into prairie winds.
The smell of canola fields reek.
The water comes from a ground well and tastes disgusting.
The beer fridge has only Kokanee beer in it and I drank too much of the stuff in High School. Each sip is a painful reminder of over doing it.
Being asked to mow the lawn and having no excuse why I can't.
Mowing takes 3 hours on a riding mower and I'm still digging dust out of my ears.
Mosquitoes come out right after Happy Hour and spoil the night.
There's no smog to absorb the suns rays, I'm now crispy red.
I reach my daily caloric intake just before lunchtime.

Top 10

Why vacationing at home in the summer is so great:

(Better start with the obvious) Hanging out with the family.
Meals are prepared by others and cost nothing more than "some" (I mean really little) manual labour.
Fresh air to jog in.
Soft bath towels the size of India that can wrap around my body 700 times.
Reader's Digest and National Geographic magazines are piled behind every toilet in the house.
Grass, trees, flowers are all real and the fresh veggies are ready to eat.
Birds and dragon flies gambol about the yard. (These may annoy me later on in the week).
It's hot but not sauna hot like Seoul.
There's a virgin campfire pit ready to be corrupted.
The basement fridge is devoted to beer.