A Long Overdue Update

Hello everyone,

It has been quite a long time since I posted a vlog update on YouTube and an even longer time since I posted a blog update. School has become quite intense. But I feel it is time to write something so I'll be talking about my study abroad experience starting with my trip to Banff and ending here, at the last Friday of classes. Strap in, and prepare for a lot of pictures.

So, Banff. How can I describe it other than amazing? The Rockies were so incredible and the snow was beautiful. Two friends and I went on this trip together. We started by driving to Calgary (a 7ish hour drive) which was quite the experience. Being that the car was rented in Canada and we were driving in Canada, I had to get used to thinking in kilometers, not miles. I got used to it pretty quickly, but driving at 130 km/hr was still exciting (130 just seems lightning fast until you realize its actually like 80 mph). But anyway, we got to Calgary and spent the night before heading for Jasper and Banff.

Calgary, Feb 17, 2019. Driving into the city on the first night.

When we began our drive to Jasper and Banff National Parks, it was snowy and cloudy, and you couldn't really see anything at all. This meant that we didn't see the mountains until they were pretty much right on top of us. I think I was mid-sentence when I noticed the mountains. I just stopped and stared before getting really excited and taking a video. This is probably a good time to mention that I made a vlog about my trip to Banff that you can find on my YouTube channel. I'll leave a link at the end of this post. But the clouds finally cleared, and we stopped to take pictures of the mountains before continuing our journey.

Outside Banff National Park, Feb 18, 2019. Our first good view of the Rocky Mountains.

Outside Banff, Feb 18, 2019. Me being excited about the mountains!

Outside Banff, Feb 18, 2019. Agnese being excited about the mountains!

Outside .... (you get it). Me still excited about the mountains. I may have been being a bit silly, but I was just so happy to be there.

Agnese, Marco, and I all being excited.

Some good mountains....

Our first stop was the Mistaya Canyon in Jasper National Park. There's not really much to say other than it was awesome. You could hear the water echoing far below us in the canyon and not much else. One of my favorite parts of the trip was on our hike out to the canyon. We were completely surrounded by snow about 6 or 7 ft deep and only had a narrow path on which to walk. At one point, I just stopped and my friends followed suit. When no one was moving or talking, it was completely silent. Now, I don't mean the kind of silent that you get in your house at night or when no one is around. Then there is still background ambiance. On that trail to the canyon, there was absolute silence. It was incredible and so calming. The snow absorbed every tiny noise, and I felt like I was in a black hole for sound. Anyway, we also went to Johnston Canyon in Banff and that was cool but there isn't that much to say about it, so here are some pics of the canyons.

Jasper National Park, Feb 18, 2019. The beautiful Mistaya canyon.

Banff National Park, Feb 17, 2019. Me being excited at the lower falls in Johnston Canyon.

Banff National Park, Feb 17, 2019. The lower falls. (Image credit: Agnese Abbadessa)

So, we finished our adventures by going to a hot spring (which you can see in my vlog) and the Royal Tyrrell Museum which was a "dinosaur" museum. I say "dinosaur" because there were more than just dinos there. There were mammals and reptiles and all kinds of fossils (which, again, you can see in my vlog).

After the trip, not much happened. There were midterms and assignments and such that were a bit scary but went pretty well overall. Once all that died down, Agnese and I started actually doing things again. We walked across a frozen lake, donated blood, played some pool, did stupid college things, and just generally had a good time.

Somewhere in that time, I applied for and was offered a job for the summer. It was really cool that, despite the fact that I am about 2,000 miles away, I was able to interview and do all those things you do to get jobs. 😜

Now that I've talked about what I've done since my last post, here are some miscellaneous things that I want to talk about: the wildlife. While I haven't seen a moose yet (besides the world's 2nd largest moose in Moose Jaw) I have seen plenty of rabbits. They are huge and fluffy and adorable. And now that it's starting to warm up and the snow is gone, they are losing their white fur too. It's really cool to be able to see this transition. I've also seen lots of brown squirrels which are much bigger than the little grey squirrels we have in TN. There are big pigeons, big geese, pretty much big everything here and I love it! The only animals that aren't so big are the prairie dogs. They are so tiny and cute, and they scream at you. Like, it actually sounds like they are screaming at you; it's one of the cutest things I've seen in my life!

Well, this blog post has gone on for a long time. (Hopefully that makes up for those weeks I missed.) I just finished my last Friday class of the semester and my last Friday class of my undergraduate career. There are some feelings in there somewhere, but I'll save those for another blog post.