Great Canadian Escape: Tales From The Great White North: Thunderwolves Howl!

Dear Internet,

Yet another week has passed, and as they say, time flies when you're having fun. Last week was full of activities and school and I got to try out a lot of new things!

I had a day off on Monday, since all my classes were cancelled. The other class' instructor was ill, and the other one was cancelled because a water pipe broke down in the building, bringing the fire extinguishing system down, so they had to evacuate the whole building. A water main also burst near the Sanders Fieldhouse (gym-building) and they closed down the gym as well for a short time. The cold weather is taking it's toll, it seems. This week has actually been pretty nice when it comes to weather, the average temperature being somewhere between -5 to -10 Celsius.

On Tuesday I went on a dog-sled ride! It was a great experience and definitely worth trying! The person who owns the dogs told that sometimes the dogs go through races that are up to a hundred miles long in total! Of course it includes breaks, but still, must be tough for the doggies!

Who needs a car when you have a dog sled?

In the evening we went to see a movie at the local Silver City cinema. The cinema itself was actually pretty cool; it looked more like an amusement park of some sort with bright neon-lights, statues and several restaurant desks in it. Unfortunately I didn't bring my phone, so I don't have pictures from there, but I will take some shots the next Tuesday when we go again; tickets are only 5,25 bucks on Tuesdays! (that's about 3,7 €) So, it's basically a waste not to go there! We saw The Imitation Game, which was honestly one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It tells the story of Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a British mathematician who broke the German Enigma-code used to encrypt their communications during WWII.

On Wednesday I went on a skiing trip to Loch Lomond, a nearby ski-resort. It only cost 29 bucks and included equipment rental, ride on the bus back and forth and the skiing ticket as well. It wasn't the biggest place, but there were practically no other people other than us LU students, and there was plenty of room to ski!

View from the bottom of one of the slopes.

The mountain had two sides to ski on, but some of the routes were closed.

On Friday and Saturday we went to watch some hockey. The Lu Thunderwolves played against UBQTR Patriotes (which my friend referred to as a "bunch of French faggots") on both nights. The games were really fast-moving and intense, and the general quality of the games even on the University-level seems to be really good, despite the players being young. We lost both games, but it was still loads of fun! On Saturday we got to sit in the VIP booth with free beverages and snacks and of course the best view of the game.

Friday was also the day that LU kicked off it's 50th anniversary celebrations. There were lots of activities and free stuff at the campus, and we got to try the Canadian bonfire treats, S'mores. A S'more is made by assembling a roasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. It's actually a really nice treat to make over the bonfire, try it out! They also had some surprisingly impressive fireworks in the evening.

Selfie taken by Z, our very own designated driver from the International Office :)

Wolfie!

Like I said, the players are young. Nah, just kidding, just some amusement during the break.

School's also starting to pick up, and the first assignments are well on their way. I've been trying to do as much school stuff during my free time so that I won't have to panic with it at the end of the term.

I'm just going to finish this post with a couple of pictures from along the past week.

Have a good one!

Yours sincerely,

-Teemu