Rockies!!!!

After almost a month here a new blog! Almost the final one! I think the next one will be written in The Netherlands. Sad but also exciting to go back home again. But first! My time the past month:
week 46: On Friday I went to a free fair-trade pancake breakfast with two friends of Whistler (Mariana and Miao). Great pancakes, and we didn't had to sign up for some good cause. They just wanted us to be aware of all the fair-trade possibilities on campus. In the afternoon I went for lunch at Sproutz. This is a vegan lunchroom on campus where Esther (roommate) works. This day all the money that they made went to a good cause. (I felt so good that day, haha!). Saturday I went to a winter market nearby Queen Elizabeth Park with another friend of Whistler and her friend (Christine and Natalie). They had a lot of very good deli food! I bought juice, blue cheese, chocolate, Christmas stoll (bread) and really good grapes. I again realised how nice Canadians are, so friendly and they always let you try before you buy ;) I also seem to have a very Dutch accent. Also a stranger immediately after one sentence recognized me as Dutch. (all the people who said so also have a connection with the Netherlands, but still amazing how fast they catch that up, or.. not :P maybe I sound terrible, flat Dutch accent, haha!). That evening I had dinner with Lily and Asuko at Lily's place. We had good food and nice Christmas music. I had a great time with them. On Sunday I finally talked to my friends in the Netherlands! So nice to finally speak to you 'for real'!
Week 47: This week nothing special happened. I did went to Candy Town in Yale Town. It was a quite Christmas market, with Santa and everything! I went there with Maio and we bought some cookies. It was really busy, but everyone seemed to have a good time!
Week 48: On Thursday I had a nice dinner at Erika's pasta night. Met some new people again and helped with cooking. Didn't stay there till late, because the next day the rockies were scheduled!! We left at 6 by bus from campus (Mariana and I). We grabbed the tour bus at 7. This day was mostly a bus day to get to the rockies. But that didn't matter since we had an amazing tour guide, who could definitely make sure everyone was having a good time. He had some experience, since he went to the rockies for 341 times in 11 years. We did a quiz and a game with the bus and everyone seemed to participate a lot. The last bit took a while since there was a lot of snowfall. We arrived at the WestTrek cabins (all new!) and met the friendly volunteers of WestTrek who made sure our time at the cabins was amazing. Walking through a big pile of snow we went to our cabins. Nice little homes with Christmas lights. Inside we could make it warm and cosy. Which was nice, since it was almost -30 outside! In the evening we had hotdogs from the campfire and mulled wine, which tasted really good. Next day we went to Lake Louise (B-E-A-utiful!). We had a clear blue sky and a thick layer of white snow. It was like looking at a picture instead of real. After that we had a (again amazing) hike in Johnson's Canyon where we saw the frozen Bow Falls. In the afternoon we went up the Gondola in Banff. O my god, that was cold! -35 now! The wind really hurts your hand and you had to keep moving, or you would freeze. But that didn't matter, because we had a beautiful ánd amazing view up that mountain. The moon was already up and the sun started to set, which created warm colours on the mountain tops. After the Gondola we checked in in a nice hotel in Banff. Apparently you normally have to pay a lot for this hotel, but the Boss is friends with someone important at Westtrek, so we could stay there for a lot cheaper! That night you could go out, but we were so tired (and it was so cold outside) that we stayed at the hotel. (The next morning we appeared to be not the only ones who needed some rest). We went for dinner at the hotel, but before we walked a bit through Banff. It is a really cute village with a lot of souvenirs shops. Next day when we drove of we suddenly saw a big elk! I couldn’t take pictures of him, but he was beautiful and surprisingly big. We went to visit the Two Jack Lake, were we witnesses of the beautiful creation of ice on the lake ( which looked like mist over the not frozen water next to the ice). This created a very mystic view. After take some pictures, the tour guide grabbed the sleds and we started sledding at the parking lot. We had a lot of fun. After that we went to the Hot springs at Banff. +40 in the water and -40 (!!!!) outside the water. Which meant that we could create amazing sculptures of our hair! It was nice to finally be really warm again. Nice and cosy we went back in the bus to drive to the final lake of the day: Emerald Lake. O my god.. my favourite place of the weekend I think. Sun started to set again and there was a little village in the lake, a nice big mountain at the background and a shining moon in the sky. The tour guide advised us to put up some headphones and nice songs and sit somewhere by yourself to have a moment for yourself. I didn't had the music, but I sat down, and I enjoyed. It felt so unreal, so beautiful! After a few minutes I started to freeze and had to go back to the bus. But it was amazing. We had dinner at a typical American restaurant with red benches. We had a good big plate of pasta Bolognese. That night we slept at the cabins again and we had smoores at the fire place! (melted marshmallows, with chocolate and cookies). Next morning after another frozen breakfast we went snow shoeing. It was a lot of fun and great to walk through the snowy forest. After the snow shoeing we had another long day at the bus to get back to Vancouver. It was a really amazing weekend. I think the high light of my stay here! Unfortunately real life was waiting for me back home, so I studied a lot the next days, made 2 finals and am still studying for my last one this Friday. I did celebrate Sinterklaas of course! On the 6th of December (because on roommate had an exam this morning so the 5th couldn't work) we had Dutch pancakes and a lot of Sinterklaas candy that my family had send me. We had a really good time and I am really going to miss these girls! They were great roommates! But I'm not saying good bye yet, we still have a trip to Whistler scheduled! I also had dinner on the 5th with Grete and Erika. Always a good time with these girls!
Now I'm waiting to go to the physiotherapist (also last time) and after that study, study, study. I have some goodbye dinner scheduled as well and of course New York! I'll tell you all about it when I'm back in the Netherlands!