The land of sorry and bears, Canada

[Obsidian]

As a bunch know I am a Electrical and Electronic engineer who is doing his Masters specializing Signals and Telecommunications.

Last year I was invited to go present my research at a 5 day conference with a bunch of different professors in the same field around the world. During the conference I got bored of my peers as they were always drunk or just tedious to be around so I started bothering the eccentric professors instead. As it turns out one Professor, The Dean of Electrical engineering at the University of Alberta, liked my bothering and also liked my research presentation and extended me an invite to come do some research collaboration with him for a couple months.

I of course said absolutely as who passes up an all expenses paid trip to a cool country so I left at end of February and have since been getting into the swing of Canadian student life here. It was the mildest winter is recent memory apparently so I got off lucky in terms of the cold. I can get around anywhere for free by bus because I am a student which is nice.

The varsity itself is decently large and for some reason every single building has at least 2 coffee shops. There are many little lounges in every faculty for students to relax or work in. Many clubs to join and sports around.

I will post some pictures when I am not working in my lab.

I met the furry group here last night and they were nice and told me overwhelmingly to attend Fur Eh http://fureh.ca/wordpress/ which I will be doing but that is in May so relatively far away. I will take some pictures of their suits either at the event or when they next dress up

[Leeward]

Hehehe Fur Eh XD

[Sev]

Furry, fur 'ay, furrea?

[Raven Song]

Canadians have the best sense of humour ever.

THATS SO COOL!!!!!!!!! You have to send us pics and keep us up to date!!!

[Obsidian]

So some photos:

The view of the surrounding town from the engineering faculty (I took this one while it was still snowing)

The Engineering faculty wherein I have made my lair (All the buildings in this photo belong to engineering)

Awesome lounging area for students (1 of many)

University has some a long line of shops selling everything from anime to legal advice, above the shops is student accomodation.

The university has its own on campus metro station which to my 3rd country mentality was impressive.

And I stay here(photo from their website because I forgot to take one myself) at a place called international house where they throw all of us foreigners so we don't influence the children with our backwards thinking and flatcaps.
https://www.residence.ualberta.ca/sites ... summer.jpg

I am a bad tourist and don't really know what else to show. I will at some point go to "The largest Mall in the Northern hemisphere" or so they say and take pictures but on the whole I don't like malls.

[Randall]

Nice, if you do happen to take a trip to Labrador, please post pics.

[Neon]

Oh wow. This seems really really cool! I've always wanted to go to Canada. Enjoy what you can and make the most of it!

[KinkInZA]

wow hard work really does pay hehe congrats man have a good time while keeping up the hard work

[Obsidian]

No one tells me what to do! Now I will be grumpy D:

Thanks guys, It is so far very difficult for me to get bored so as a result I am enjoying it a lot .

Unfortunately Labrador is on the other side of the country . Interestingly enough they celebrate st Patrick's day way harder than this province does. Apparently they got more Irish or something.

The people themselves are pretty nice but judging from the ones I have met very reserved, they seem pretty ok with hiding/running from me for the most part (It doesn't help I am pretty persistent). Even the professor who invited me is only now getting used to having a completely lost foreigner in his office now and then.

I got a bit lost nights ago ending up in some random suburb far from anything recognizable, so I took a casual stroll and eventually found a main street in a random area and got a bus. Was weird feeling somewhat safe just walking along a deserted street at night, or perhaps I am living in a blissful dreamworld and just got lucky.

Besides the downtown area this entire city is basically 1 story high on a flat surface
I can see till the mountain range from the 6th floor of the faculty. I will take a picture sometime.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

Was weird feeling somewhat safe just walking along a deserted street at night, or perhaps I am living in a blissful dreamworld and just got lucky.

Nah, have the same feeling in Vienna. Some places look a bit weird but I've been walking around the city alone around midnight and felt more relaxed than I did in Cape Town at noon.

[Randall]

Like when I worked in the Far East. The locals thought I was weird constantly clutching my bag and looking over my shoulder

[Asbjorn-phoenix]

The land of bears and sorry, I shall have to visit soon, I believe the bears are quite friendly, especially those of the lumber jack variety.
Well hopefully I'll be able to make it there on a permanent basis sooner rather than later.

[Raven Song]

[Obsidian]

Watched a Ice Hockey match on Saturday. These guys are incredible on their skates, damnable 12 year old kids were great on the ice skating backwards without looking back and smashing that puck at extreme speeds.

I would have liked to do this sport in school, there were some clubs but the support for the sport as a whole is pretty low.

[Raven Song]

Oh lookie! Obsidian is online at a time that I am also online, which is pretty late for South African's because he's in a whole different timezone!!!

yay!!!!!!

Also my dad once went to a ice hockey game with canadians at Madison square gardens in New York.
Said it was much better than the Football game he went to, but not quite as fun as the baseball game he went too...

American's do pansy sport, and the polite quiet Canadians do the violent ice fest