Third & Fourth Week

Third Week 13^th October – 19^th October

A great thing about my new home is that it is very close to the Pacific Spirit Regional Park. The first time I went there for a run it was heavily raining, so the forest was incredibly vital and lush. It has a great trail system and I already love the trails no matter whether its sunny or rainy with the soft underground, jumping over roots and through the huge packed trees. 

 

University got settled down by now and I ended it up with taking three courses of human kinetics: active health, exercise physiology and neuromuscular integration of movement. All of them are very interesting and include lab(oratory) sessions. These sessions are great; in a huge learning lab we do all sorts of things, different measurement techniques of fitness variables or measuring muscle activity with electromyography…

But besides university – there are the mountains! (and the beaches! but let's focus) And straight after university beach or mountain - well at least this Thursday: we went up Grouse Mountain in the afternoon. The Grouse Grind is a 2,9km trail going up very steep in North Vancouver. The elevation gain is 850m and Vancouverites run up there for training or competing with the time. Record time for the Grouse Grind is 23 minutes! We did not quite get that… and we were not appropriately dressed at all in our hiking clothes – one needs nothing but his jogging shoes, short pants and a top ;)  However it was fun and finally arriving at the top completely soaked in sweat, was great! We were so lucky since the morning rain and clouds gradually diminished, offering a great view over Vancouver. At the top there are several summer tourist attractions such as two Grizzly bears which were playing around. There also was a bird show, enabling me to take the picture from the hawk, which was flying right towards me while I was just wanted to take a picture :).

 

At the weekend I saw my first football game, the homecoming of the Thunderbirds. And again, it was just like being part of some teenie movie… fan clubs, promotions, cheerleaders, football…  

Fourth Week 20^th October – 26^th October

Another great thing on the campus is the swimming pool which is kind of free at specific times to students. It has a great 50m length outside pool, which is just perfect for having a break between lectures or studying… I just go there for an hour swim and afterwards you feel so much more activated and fresh compared to having had a coffee or lunch... But since the weather is so great, I mostly just go down to the beach and have a swim in the cold pacific ocean ;).

On Friday I joined the surf club for a surfing weekend in Tofino. Tofino is on Vancouver Island and one of the best surf spots at the westcoast of Canada. It was constantly raining from Friday until Sunday morning, which made camping a lot of fun ;) and contributed to the real Tofino-surf-atmosphere, since it rains a lot there and surfing is usually in fog and rain. On Vancouver Island wonderful coastal rainforests are located with enormous and very old trees. It was great to drive through the forests while it was pouring rain and waterfalls were coming down from the cliffs beneath the streets. When we arrived in Tofino the guys having equipment already went for a surf, and another girl and me just enjoyed the wild atmosphere walking along the beach with a beer: very strong wind, heavy rainfall and the sound of breakers… Awesome! Although completely wet we had a great time. Unfortunately we did not get dry for many hours, since there was no firewood yet, no shelter or anything else. But in the end a fire was lit and we built up a two-person tent for three people squeezing into it.

After having already seen the beach and surfing I was so excited about finally getting into the water, that I could barely wait to get into the wetsuit and head towards the waves on Saturday. The wetsuits were great, so warm and comfortable as long as you were in the water! But rationally it is a mad thing to do: running into the waves, fighting them, getting beaten down by them, and swallowing lots and lots of salty water. But then you start to catch the waves, use their energy for having fun, and this is when you get the feeling for it and addicted to it! Paddling, catching the waves, going with the flow, standing up and finally cruising in the white water towards the beach. Nice :). After surfing, we had the best burritos ever and went to a pub, just longing for a dry and warm place. Sunday morning the rain stopped and the day had a very mysterious light, the sun dimly shining through the fog. We had a great surf and finally went back to Vancouver (which takes a lot longer than you’d think before – everything around here is a lot further away than I usually assume as a European citizen ;)) being incredibly lucky, since we were the last car to get on the ferry  (which takes about 200 cars).