MY TRIP TO NEWFOUNDLAND
Well I have to say it's been quite the trip. Tonight for my final night here I went to the St. John's Maple Leafs game with Silv. Though I think the decision to watch it was a good one, the game itself wasn't the most exciting. It was a 2-1 win for the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadians farm team, and there were quite a few empty seats to the surprise of both Silv and I. There wasn't even a fight although there were some minor tussles. And the food prices were pretty high, though that didn't really surprise me. Yup, $4.25 for a glass of Canadian and $3.75 for nachos and cheese. Then there was the ice cream that cost me $3.50 and additional Canadian I got. Ah well. There's exciting games and boring ones and you just have to get lucky. This one would fall under the boring category. Boring like some other CUP delgates, man oh man.
Last night I was at the final CUP plenary, which didn't end until 2:30 a.m., and starting at like 10 a.m. or something absurd like that. It was damn long. Although it worked out okay because we worked in shifts, I just can't believe it lasted so long. Then they had joke motions they were trying to pass at the end, like having a game of duck duck goose. The majority, including myself opposed the motion thank goodness.
We finally pulled together our Omega for this week sometime while I was at the game with Silv, and now nobody from the Omega is in the hotel except Silv and I. It's been a different week, that's for sure, full of ups and downs. Though for the most part things were good, certain things, like stupid CUP plenaries and other CUP people, made the trip feel more serious then it should be.
Some memorable moments of the trip include meeting Hockey Night in Canada's Elliotte Friedman, injuring my shoulder (it's not that bad really), drinking my face off at what was a stellar bar Wednesday night, getting tackled by a hot blonde in the snow, sneaking alcohol into both CUP dinners, and the hockey game tonight. Another particular memorable moment was when all eight of us Omega staffers - me, Mike, Silv, Dave Gracey, Neal Pobran, Jeff George, T-Bird and Kelly Kay - were all singing loud to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer Wednesday night only to notice people leaving the bar following the song. Hmm.
Dave Gracey: Yeah, then following the landing you hear 'thanks daddy'.
That was a joke Gracey made about our last landing in St. John's a week ago, which was a little rough. The airplane was shaking back and forth and it wasn't as smooth as our previous landings in Edmonton and Ottawa. But we got here in one piece anyways. I'm thinking the ice on the runway could have factored into the rougher landing, since there is snow here, and lots of it.
One of the biggest adjustments was getting used to the time change. I'm used to it though. It's just a bit too late. The town itself is great though. The people are nice, alcohol is cheap, the meetings and workshops, for the most part, have been informative, and I've seen many new things. It's easy to tell just by looking around that this town is built on tourism. It's preserving it's history in having many old restaurants and pubs, and this Fairmont hotel I'm staying at is incredible. Yup, no Boston Pizza, McDonalds or Subway downtown. Ah, who need them.
Mike and Gracey, in search of Danny Williams, the premier of Newfoundland, went to his house on Thursday to discover that he wasn’t home, but his daughers are “smoking” said Gracey. They expect to have some sort of story anyways on Willams, and it's all on camera, complements of Mike Eng.
That pretty much sums up the trip in a nutshell. Mike will have a whole detailed blog on the trip itself once it's over.
Well I have to say it's been quite the trip. Tonight for my final night here I went to the St. John's Maple Leafs game with Silv. Though I think the decision to watch it was a good one, the game itself wasn't the most exciting. It was a 2-1 win for the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadians farm team, and there were quite a few empty seats to the surprise of both Silv and I. There wasn't even a fight although there were some minor tussles. And the food prices were pretty high, though that didn't really surprise me. Yup, $4.25 for a glass of Canadian and $3.75 for nachos and cheese. Then there was the ice cream that cost me $3.50 and additional Canadian I got. Ah well. There's exciting games and boring ones and you just have to get lucky. This one would fall under the boring category. Boring like some other CUP delgates, man oh man.
Last night I was at the final CUP plenary, which didn't end until 2:30 a.m., and starting at like 10 a.m. or something absurd like that. It was damn long. Although it worked out okay because we worked in shifts, I just can't believe it lasted so long. Then they had joke motions they were trying to pass at the end, like having a game of duck duck goose. The majority, including myself opposed the motion thank goodness.
We finally pulled together our Omega for this week sometime while I was at the game with Silv, and now nobody from the Omega is in the hotel except Silv and I. It's been a different week, that's for sure, full of ups and downs. Though for the most part things were good, certain things, like stupid CUP plenaries and other CUP people, made the trip feel more serious then it should be.
Some memorable moments of the trip include meeting Hockey Night in Canada's Elliotte Friedman, injuring my shoulder (it's not that bad really), drinking my face off at what was a stellar bar Wednesday night, getting tackled by a hot blonde in the snow, sneaking alcohol into both CUP dinners, and the hockey game tonight. Another particular memorable moment was when all eight of us Omega staffers - me, Mike, Silv, Dave Gracey, Neal Pobran, Jeff George, T-Bird and Kelly Kay - were all singing loud to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer Wednesday night only to notice people leaving the bar following the song. Hmm.
Dave Gracey: Yeah, then following the landing you hear 'thanks daddy'.
That was a joke Gracey made about our last landing in St. John's a week ago, which was a little rough. The airplane was shaking back and forth and it wasn't as smooth as our previous landings in Edmonton and Ottawa. But we got here in one piece anyways. I'm thinking the ice on the runway could have factored into the rougher landing, since there is snow here, and lots of it.
One of the biggest adjustments was getting used to the time change. I'm used to it though. It's just a bit too late. The town itself is great though. The people are nice, alcohol is cheap, the meetings and workshops, for the most part, have been informative, and I've seen many new things. It's easy to tell just by looking around that this town is built on tourism. It's preserving it's history in having many old restaurants and pubs, and this Fairmont hotel I'm staying at is incredible. Yup, no Boston Pizza, McDonalds or Subway downtown. Ah, who need them.
Mike and Gracey, in search of Danny Williams, the premier of Newfoundland, went to his house on Thursday to discover that he wasn’t home, but his daughers are “smoking” said Gracey. They expect to have some sort of story anyways on Willams, and it's all on camera, complements of Mike Eng.
That pretty much sums up the trip in a nutshell. Mike will have a whole detailed blog on the trip itself once it's over.
