Chapter 9: Ottawaahaa!

Chapter 9

This past weekend, the 6^th to the 8^th, was the Ottawa City trip! Fewer of us went along for the ride this time for a number of reasons, but having a smaller group made it possible to do different kinds of activities. While having a big group last time was a lot of fun, this smaller group was a lot of fun, too!

We left Friday morning at 10:00 for the bus station and arrived in Ottawa around 1:30. The ride to Ottawa was actually about an hour shorter than the one to Quebec city. We checked into the Novotel and after a brief rest we went to the Royal Canadian Mint, which was just down the road from the hotel. At the Mint we took a short tour of the facility, where all the machines and workers were behind thick glass. They were in the process of making Investment Coins when we arrived, and we learned that the RCM of Ottawa hold the Guinness World Record for the largest gold coin, 220 pounds, 7 ounces, and a foot and a half across.

Our first evening, the capital city was a little chilly, but that didn’t stop us from frolicking around a giant, modern-style spider sculpture and running up to look-out points just in time for a fantastic sun set. The city has several nice parks as well as monuments and statues representing historic Canadian figures, events, and its roots with the British royal family. We eventually found our way to the Hard Rock Café of Ottawa for dinner, and later that evening we got to jump in the hotel’s pool and revel in the glory of the jacuzzi hot tub.

The next two days we had fantastic weather, sunny and without a breeze, probably in the mid to high fifties. Saturday morning we had a buffet breakfast in the hotel, then took two taxis to the Museum of Science and Technology. It was a both fun and interesting place, with three of the largest steam train engines I’ve ever seen, and exhibits on everything from the Canadian space program to the Titanic to the history of transportation as explained by LEGOs.

After that, we scooped up lunch and made our way to Parliament, where we had a reserved tour all to ourselves. I still don’t completely understand how the Canadian government works, but I did learn that their senate is comprised not of politicians but of people from all different professions, which sounds like a cool concept to me!

We had some time to ourselves to explore the city after Parliament, and later we went to the Cornerstone Bar & Grill for dinner. It was probably the most chic and trendy ‘bar or grill’ I’d ever seen, and it had great food! That night we had another reserved spot, this time at the comedy club ‘Yuk Yuks’, where we enjoyed a couple hours of professional stand up.

Finally, on Sunday we had our morning buffet once more and were sad to check out of rooms with the fantastically comfortable beds. Our final activity was the trip to the Museum of Civilization, which houses a massive collection of First Nations totem poles and objects. I could probably write a whole blog just on that one Museum! A must-see for any trip to Ottawa.

Alas, our trip came to an end after we went for lunch and retuned to the bus station. The ride home went smoothly and we all had a great time. I would absolutely recommend both the Quebec and Ottawa city trips to all future Champlain Montrealers.

Special Thanks To: Dan for all his awesome and thorough photos

and

Stefi, for two great trips across Canada!! Thank you Stefi!

Chapter 8: HalloWIN

Halloweeny Fun

In my PERSONAL opinion, Halloween is just about the best holiday of there is. Sure it has its downsides, but no one’s perfect, right? Some people are in it for the candy, some people for the parties, but I’m in it for the costumes. I love Halloween for the chance to make a REALLY COOL costume and walk around in public wearing it. Yes, I’m one of ‘those people’ who puts a lot of work into her costume months, sometimes years, in advance and shows up feeling almost overdressed. Which is what I did this year, too.

I’ve gathered that Halloween is pretty popular in Montreal, what with all the availability of night clubs for the partiers and ghost tours for others. What’s interesting in the UQAM dorm is that many of the students, at least the ones I knew, had never had a Halloween. According to my roommates, in France it’s looked down upon as a silly holiday for American children. Well, after the 31^st, maybe some of these students will bring Halloween back to Europe and spread the popularity.

While it’s not popular in France, this French-speaking residence still had a costume party on the night of the 30^th. I went to check it out and got unknowingly pulled into a costume/dance competition. Literally, I walked in with my costume on, they asked me my name (in French) and then we were all given some instructions which I didn’t realize were basically: “This is a costume contest and a dance off. Go for it!”

It was good in the end, though, because I won a gift card. I’m assuming it was for the costume and not my dancing skills (or lack thereof…). I’ve never associated Halloween with dance contests before, but then again it made for a new and fun combination.

Along with the Halloween party, Champlain took its students to the ‘Extreme Halloween Labyrinth’, which I actually didn’t get to go to because I was in the costume/dance contest. I’ll have to get a report about he labyrinth to post because it sounded like a good time. I just couldn’t be in two places at once.

All in all, Halloween was a good time here. I carved a pumpkin for my roommates and some of their friends from France, a process I don’t think they’d ever seen before, and after I baked the seeds with salt and cinnamon. Within about 12 hours they’d eaten all the seeds, which made me proud. I put up a “Happy Halloween” banner on the wall and some of those fake cobwebs. We bought candy and I brought various costume pieces for them, since I knew they didn’t have any of their own. There were some parties around the dorm, and I went to the one with the other Champlain students, who were sporting X-Men, Firefly, Secret Agent, and what I call ‘novelty’ costumes (i.e. one guy dressed up just like his roommate). It was a fun time!