October

It’s been a long time since my last post, but times have been very busy. During the last weeks I had three midterms which required quite a lot of studying, so I spent many, many hours in the library. Lab reports were still going on, so this had to be done as well. Although the library is quite a nice place (see picture) and I don’t mind being there (actually preferring it to my home at the moment ;)), I am very relieved now about a little break from studying. Luckily I have found really good friends here so there still were many coffee breaks, great cooking sessions, hiking, running, swimming and distraction going on to maintain happiness. 

 

Since the weather was absolutely fantastic most of the days I was desperate to spend time outside. Besides running through the forests during the week, we benefit a very sunny Sunday hiking from Deep Cove to Lynn Valley in North Vancouver. Especially in Deep Cove I was so surprised and pleased by the beautiful bay. Everything was so calm and the water with the surrounding hills looked some kind of mysterious. Hard to believe that it was so close to the lively city. The hike was very nice going through humid forests, few people walking there.

 

We did not take the cardiac bypass, but I loved the name of this path, so I just had to take a picture -  good prescription/prevention of an actual bypass, walking there once in a while. For everyone who likes it more extreme and prefers cliff-jumping there is very nice advice: besides this interesting fact, that when you fall into the water your shoes might be destroyed, nice little pictures illustrate all the tips. Another good one: there is a strong current. People have tried to escape it, but did not succeed. 

 

The famous UBC apple festival was quite a disappointment. Instead of being able to taste many different sorts of apples you had to queue up for everything for ages and then you got three pieces of apple… (which is not exactly what we were hoping for after a morning in the library and hungry student stomachs). So we ended up making great plans for dinner and had delicious burritos at my place in the evening.

After been here for more than two months I am really fed up with all the food you buy at the university or downtown, so I started cooking again. This is just so much better (especially when doing with friends)! Besides that simple pasta is unbelievably expensive, vegetables are really quite cheap and good when you buy them in the nice little farm markets. Guess what four German students cook out in Canada? Mashed potato, fresh spinach and scrambled eggs :) But we also already had pumpkin-risotto, couscous, delicious burritos, pumpkin soup, yam fries…

So you see, I really settle in by now. Most important feature for settling in: a bike! One lovely Saturday morning I bought a nice mountain-bike and from now on I go to university by bike. Simply great! It’s about a 25 minutes ride. Just need some further equipment such as lights, waterprooven saddlebags and gum boots to be prepared for all weather conditions. Another great plus is going swimming every second day at eight o’clock in the morning with a friend. Great start in the day. 

Last weekend it was Halloween. We all know what happened to Halloween in Germany and I have to say I was not very keen on Halloween with German Halloween on my mind. But here it was just amazing and it just fitted. It’s a big thing for most people, families, students, older people… People are crazy about dressing up (but not just scary dressing, just dressing up) and the houses are very nicely decorated. Actually it is the only time of the year where they have fireworks as well. Weird feeling, hearing fireworks everywhere, the excitement of New Year’s Eve associated with it, but just not real.

We had Halloween on Saturday, beginning with an amazing pancake breakfast in the sun, picnic-style– I am absolutely perfect in throwing them up in the air now :) - with bananas, syrup, strawberries and coffee… Afterwards we all dressed up, being very creative (at least for my interest in creativity and dressing up ;)). It was a lot of fun and finally we turned into candy, crazy lab person, the joker and night sky. We walked through the Parade of Lost Souls, which was basically a walk downtown through little streets, people having decorated their houses, performances going on and many, many people. Afterwards we danced through the night at a house party. Sunday was a perfect lazy day, having breakfast at three o’clock, chatting and strolling through the streets. We found a shop selling Oblatenlebkuchen, Stollen, Marzipankartoffeln … and we were as merry as a lark about this discovery! Great weekend after these busy days.  And again, despite the weather forecast the sun was shining (except when I had to walk home one and a half hour at night… ).

Pictures of Halloween are yet to come, I did not take my camera, since all the others did. So hopefully I will get some soon! Currently I am back to room hunt – just to keep me busy ;) All my roommates are moving out as well, we just did not get along with our landlord at all. Anyways, I am quite optimistic and relaxed so far. And now the snow is coming down, you can already see some on the coastal mountains close to Vancouver. 

Winter season is coming up! Besides looking forward to snowboarding in Whistler I am very excited about something else: last Thursday I helped fixing the backcountry skis from the Outdoor club. So I am very curious how it is like going back to skiing after 11 or 12 years of snowboarding :) Can’t wait to hit the vast mountains with the club.

Thanksgiving Weekend October 9th-11th, 2010

For the thanksgiving weekend I spontaneously decided Friday evening to join a group of outdoor club members to go up to Brew hut (1686m) which is located close to Mount Brew. This turned out to be one of the most amazing hikes I have done so far. Not only because of the nature, the forests, the mountains, but also and especially about the way we got up there, the atmosphere, the people and the whole adventure! In some ways it was so different to everything I have done so far and it was a great experience to go out to the wild (with an axe, whistle and trail mix ;)).

Three Canadian guys, another German girl and me left the car close to Brandywine Provinical Park and headed straight into the bush, just with the direction east, a compass, completely covered in water-resistant clothes and cheeriness. Even though it was still dry from above, we already got absolutely wet because we had to go through the thick brushwood to get to the railway. It was like being in a movie, walking along the tracks with your backpack in a little group, looking for a trail to go up the mountain. After a little lunch on the tracks we followed the trail straight up to the mountain through a wonderful thick and moisture rainforest until we reached the alpine with boulder, blueberries and tough pines. It was quite a walk having to gain 1200 meters of elevation, but we were all easy-going and looking for each other. However, two other girls wanted to come later and did not hit the trail before four in the afternoon. So it was already obvious that night-walking was unavoidable. Anyways we continued our way up to the hut, it started raining and we climbed up the very steep trail until reaching Brew Lake. It would have been an easy task to find Brew hut if the weather just had been better. But it wasn’t. So we were stuck up there in the rain and mist, not knowing where to go. One Canadian had left us before to reach the hut earlier so he could go down again to get the girls, and of course he had the GPS, all mobiles and the map in his backpack. Never mind. We made our way somehow up there and I cannot remember any time before having appreciated the invention of cairns so much as in these moments. So happy about every cairn we detected giving confidence that we were on the right way. And we were. Finally the silhouette of the hut could be seen through the fog! On the way up there we passed remaining rests of snow and the smell of a burning fire welcomed us ten meters ahead. What a great feeling! The good thing about all the walking in the rain and fog – you could be sure that you would have a dry and warm place to stay at (although not assuming that it would be so hard to find that place ;)) so I never lost the fun in hiking out in the rain. I went out to get water from the melted snow lakes and it was just so windy and rainy, actually having to be called disgusting weather – but the best weather to be in a cozy, warm and secure hut with great people. Luckily the outdoor club keeps the hut in great condition so there was fire wood up there and a stove, fuel… However, we still missed three members of our group. We knew they would be late and it must have been a creepy hike up there in the dark, rain and fog. Unfortunately they got lost and we were just lucky to have mobiles so we could communicate with each other. In the end the two Canadians went out again at 10:30pm searching for them, with emergency blankets in which you can sleep and whistles since even with headlights you could not see any further than ten meters. Luckily all five arrived an hour later at the hut. So we finally enjoyed the stew, fish, chicken, banana bread, pumpkin pie and mulled wine we had carried up. It was so good. The wind was blowing so strongly and the vibration of the hut was really frightening. Especially during the night I had to keep telling myself that the hut has stood here for such a long time and has surely resisted much worse storms since it sounded very nasty outside. So good to be inside, safe and warm in your sleeping bag!

The morning welcome was amazing: it was dry and the clouds were moving around, allowing seeing the surrounding mountains! We had pancakes for breakfast – how great is that, on 1700m-pancakes! packed our stuff together and left the shelter. It had already started to snow, which made the atmosphere even better. There was much more sight than the day before so we made our way a lot quicker and easier through the snowstorm, which woke the desire for winter to come. But the snowing stopped after a while and rainbows, blue sky, rushing clouds and sun accompanied us for the rest of the hike! Such a great feeling, sun on your skin and all around! The whole scenery was so amazing - so beautiful! It took us some time to get down, but finally we were all packed up in the car again driving back to Vancouver with a lovely view at the passing mountains, sore legs and great memories. To say it in the Canadian way: it was super-fantastic. 

When I got home, my roommates from New Zealand were just having a thanksgiving dinner with some of their friends and invited me to join, which topped this weekend with an absolutely perfect ending (and the free Monday due to thanksgiving I spent studying, thankful for the wonderful (free) weekend, since midterm’s come up this week ;)).