It’s a civic holiday this Monday, so I’m away for the long weekend visiting family in Medicine Hat. My sister and her kids are going to be there—hopefully I’ll get some nice action shots of the boys jumping off the couch.

Speaking of my sister, check out her new Photography blog.

Posting has been sparse lately so it’s probably not particularly surprising when I say I may not be adding a whole lot while I’m gone.

My brother Gary is down in Argentina this month taking photos and visiting old friends. Today a couple of hooligans, about 15 or 16 years old, tried to rob him. He punched one of them in the face and then made a run for it when they pulled a knife.

Read his story.

I’m leaving for Calgary in about an hour and then tomorrow I’m off to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. There’s not likely to be much action around here in the meantime.

I realize it has been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, but I’ve been busy!

Most recently I’ve found myself down in Mesquite, Nevada getting ready to watch my brother-in-law compete in the World Long Driving Competition.

Today my family and I drove to Las Vegas to take in the sights and sounds of the notorious city. I’d share everything that I did, but you know what they say about “what happens in Vegas…”

If you’re really interested, you can check out and comment on some of my flickr photos from today’s travels.

A friend of a friend, whom just happens to be a pretty great writer, has recently started a travel blog documenting her travels around the globe. Her latest entry on getting great deals flying is full of good advice.

It’s been a busy week. One of those weeks where you don’t have time to do much, but at the end of the week, you ask yourself—well what did I actually accomplish? The only thing I can say for sure is, I DIDN’T have time to write on the old web page. Fear not, after another week or so, I should return to my regular blogging schedule… and also get to all the stuff I’ve been too busy to get to.

Wow, this post is lackluster. I’ll try to spice it up with a blurry photo and story of the bear I saw last weekend in Waterton:

This bear was down in the town-site very close to Cameron Falls. Park Rangers surrounded it and kept noisy tourists (and photographer’s) at a distance.

Suddenly we heard a loud bang and the bear started running. Then lots more bangs and pops (and some might say explosions) as the rangers made more noise to scare the bear away from the town.

One lady we talked to afterward said the bear came running up the trail very close to where she and her grand daughter were and the excitement was enough to bring the little girl to tears.

Nobody was hurt—and the bear was just a little scared. It left town without further incident.

My trip to San Francisco was pretty awesome and I think it’s my new favorite city—in the United States anyway. Here’s a photo I took from the plane coming into Calgary. And here’s my San Francisco Flickr Set (it’s a work in progress as I continue to sort though the nearly 500 photos from last week).

I’ll write more about my trip later including a glimpse into the Social Media Club event where we were lucky enough to meet Jimmy Wales and listen to him speak a little bit about social media and Wikipedia. (Also thanks for the t-shirt SMC). I also really enjoyed trying out the The World Café format, a way in which the best ideas in the room can be shared with everyone through smaller discussions that leads to one large one.

It was disappointing to have to leave so soon, but I’m sure another adventure is just around the corner.

On Sunday I’m taking off for a few days in the California sun. No, I’m not off to MacWorld, but I am going to San Francisco to take part in a Social Media Club round table discussion.

Chris Heuer (SMC Co-Founder) will lead a roundtable discussion on blogs, podcasting and all the cool things we want to do and would like to see happen in 2007. SMC is working to connect Social Media groups all over the world, so it’s a great way to take a part in universal efforts to spread the Social Media love.

I’m really looking forward to it, for one thing, my skin is getting a little pasty white up here in the Great White North—but also it will be a great opportunity to make some interesting new friends south of the border. Maybe it’ll even inspire me to start my own podcast.

A fascinating first hand experience of what it’s like to be an astronaut. Anousheh Ansari posts to her website from space.

Update: She called Google.

You know what kind of letters make you the happiest? The kind that tell you—hey you’re kind of smart.

The Université Laval sent me my marks today. I got an A in CORRECTION PHONETIQUE (Phonetics) and a B- in LANGUE ORALE ET ECRITE (Oral and Written Language). La langue française est très facile.

I’m down to my last two exams before I’m officially done here at Laval and that’s probably a good thing because I need to get home where I can get some rest.

I’ve been keeping busy this last week. On Monday a few hundred students here in the French immersion program took a ride down the St. Lawrence on the Louis-Jolliet. The folks here sure know how to fill up a boat. (photos)

Tuesday night was spent chilling out with my host family and eating, quite possibly, one of the best meals of my life. Definitely top 10 anyway.

Yesterday I had lunch at a Pub in Vieux Québec with my classmates and afterwards I took a bunch of photos of a couple of the girls.

Last night was the Spectaculaire, a talent show with vaudeville style acts. After the show, and the souvenir video, we had some of the best cake I’ve ever eaten followed by an evening of dancing and partying at the campus pub. Not everything was exactly perfect, as was previously alluded to, but on the whole I did have a good time. Oh, and as a splendid little cherry on top I ended up walking home alone in the rain for an hour and got home 3:30 in the morning—nice.

I don’t remember even talking to my roommates this morning at our 7:00 breakfast. I barely remember grabbing a couple slices of bread and washing it down with OJ—oh breakfast of champions. I think they realized I was not in my finest form. Luckily the written test this morning was not too tricky.

Saturday is rapidly approaching and in addition to the fact that I really like it here, I am not overly excited for my trip with Air Canada’s infamous service. If the voyage here will be of any indication then I wouldn’t make any bets on when I’m going to arrive. If you’re reading this in Lethbridge, don’t wait up—I’ll be home when I get there.

In honor of my air travel here is a quote about airports:

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.
-Douglas Adams

I think the same can be said about Air Canada’s service—a kind of carefully refined treatment that can only be achieved with a lot of practise and determination.

This bittersweet ride is almost over. I’ve had the time of my life here—filled with both good and bad experiences. I guess some lessons take a lifetime to learn; I’m definitely still learning.

This morning I was fretting a little because I really wanted to go to the “Parqours Aventure Le Relais” (I think that translate to something like Relay Adventure Park), but I didn’t buy a ticket in advance and I was worried that they would be sold out.

Well as the universe has decided to be on my side lately, I showed up at the University and got the very last spot! Ca va tres bien!

The Parquors Aventure is a series of suspended cables that stretch between the trees (we were told that each one was a separate “game”) and each game is a different level of difficulty. One of the most interesting ones was a kind of snowboard zip line where you jumped onto the board and then zoomed down the line. It’s difficult to explain properly without a photo and since we were doing a lot of climbing, I opted out of bringing my camera with me.

However, some of my friends brought their smaller (more manageable) cameras with them and so I have a few photos of the event (like this one):

Here I look a little wobbly, but it was because I was trying hard to use only my sense of balance and not to grab the “life line” above my head in order to get across. I ended up being able to get across this one without “cheating” but most of the others, I would have fallen if it weren’t for grabbing the line (oh and of course the fact that I was strapped in).

At one point I was getting pretty confident about racing across the lines and one of the wood panels under my feet actually broke. Of course, I had the harness to hold me up, but I still got quite the adrenaline rush.

I’m having such a great time here but I’m heading out in only 7 more days! It’s time to really buckle down and get the most of it with regard to learning French!

When I first arrived in Québec I decided to count all my laps in the pool in French. I’ve gotten pretty good at counting by 25’s but I still make the occasional mistake.

While counting them today, after mixing up how far I had gone, this thought occured to me and made me smile.

There are three kinds of people in this world: Those that can count, and those that can’t.

Bon journey!

There’s only a week and a day left in my short journey to Québec. I knew the days were going to go quickly here, but seriously I can’t believe it’s so close to being over.

For the most part everything has been fantastic. The written exam didn’t go nearly as well as the oral, or phonetics but there will be more tests which will give me ample opportunity to improve. I think my major problem was that since I speak a little more fluently than the others in my class, I felt like I could get by with less studying (well I got by, but it was ugly).

Last night I tried to hook up with some friends, but somehow I forgot where I put the number and I was expecting them to call me anyway. I found out this morning that there WAS a message for me last night - but “we must not have heard the phone ring because we were talking to loudly at dinner”. Ok? That doesn’t seem just a little odd? Anyway it was no big deal, but I did check out the Salsa dancing place, Chez Morrice, just in case. Lot’s of dancing, little (or rather “no”) people that I knew.

Tonight I will be hooking up with the friends though. We are going for a picnic at the Plains of Abraham followed by a FREE jazz concert. Certainly Québec is more fun than any place I have ever lived before. The festivals just keep coming one after the other!