Friday, January 06, 2006
Goodbye 2005, Hello 2006!
It's a new year. New resolutions. New ambitions.We just headed downtown to City Hall for the fireworks display during New Year's eve. However, it was not as fantastic as last year's celebration where we celebrated Alberta's 100th year Aniversary. Odd enough, there wasn't a countdown that night. The fireworks just started off by itself when the clock struck twelve. So un-happening, haha ...
Last year, it was overly crowded because the crowd was concentrated at City Hall only. Now with the newly opened City Square, which is directly opposite the road from City Hall, everyone could move around easily. And so, there was less frustration. There was a live band playing music and people were dancing on the square. Here's a picture of City Hall before the fireworks display...
On January 3, we took a 4-hour bus ride down south to Calgary. There, we met up with friends from U of A, and also old friends from CIC who are currently studying at the Univerisity of Calgary. It was great fun! Not to mention, we had stayed at a comfortable hotel. I love the food at Calgary. Why? They have so many Chinese and Japanese restaurants!! When walking on the streets, I felt like I was actually in a city. It does feel like Melbourne city in some ways. Unlike Edmonton ...
Then we visited University of Calgary. It is a beautiful university. Most of their buildings are very new with a touch of modern design to it. However, my friends said that the U of C does not have enough classrooms to accomodate every student. Once, his classroom was located in a trailer van because of this! How terrible!
In front of the Education Building
In the business building. They actually have a stock market exchange board!
At the center of the university
The Olympic Oval - the 1988 Winter Olympics was held in Calgary where the speed skating events were held here
At Chin Sian's residence
And the karaoke place that we went too is so much better than the ones in Edmonton. They had a better selection of both chinese and english songs.
At a chinese restaurant
Superstar Karaoke
On the last day of our trip, we walked around the city for a bit. Friends brought us to 17th Avenue (Red Mount). This whole street is like an uptown area with lounges, bars, cool shops, restaurants and cafes.
And that was the whole trip to Calgary! I hope to go back there again sometime soon. And it was definitely great to meet up with old friends again :)
