MY TRIP TO EDMONTON
Left to right: Myself, Kevin Keane from the University of Toronto and Matt Silver at the Canadian University Press Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
I was only back in school for about a week and a half and I found myself at the Kamloops airport about to board a plane to Vancouver, where I would transfer onto another plane to Edmonton for the 2005 Canadian University Press (CUP) Conference. Now if this trip were half as enjoyable as the trip to Newfoundland last year it would be one worth missing the week of school. When I was sitting in a seat in the boarding section of the airport listening to Dave and Dale joke about highjacking the plane I knew that I would be for some serious entertainment. What was amazing was how laid back people were about their conversation. In fact, the guy sitting next to me was beside himself laughing.
As it turned out, this trip was another great experience. Because our flight was delayed four hours, we each got $200 off our next Air Canada flight, and in addition we got to fly executive class from Vancouver to Edmonton. There are some great additions to flying executive class not offered on regular class, like wider reclinable seats, screens flipping down from the ceiling, and free alcohol! And since our flight was only about an hour, we had only so long to drink what we could. We ran out of time to drink too much, but we weren't going to let that slow us down. We proceeded to asking our shuttle driver to stop at a liquor store on the way to our hotel. At the liquor store we picked up three flats of beer. Now for six people it's a fair bit but we didn't want to run out of alcohol on this trip. Let's rewind a bit. There were six of us who went - Matt, Dave, Jeff, Dale, Graham and myself.
I shared a hotel room with Matt, who I totally saw a new, more relaxed side of this week. The regular Matt who some know as being a little uptight, worrisome and too busy to party was on this trip to drink as well. He came up with the idea that we fill our bathtub with ice because our garbage cans and sink just didn't have the capacity to keep many beers cold. So while I was at a workshop last Friday he filled our tub up with ice and beer so there would be some cold ones ready to enjoy in the evening. We then decided to push both the up and down button on the elevator so people would have no choice but to stop on our floor, where we would yell "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy!" with drinks in hand. It worked for a few people, but upon noticing an abundance of sausage in our hotel room we figured maybe a different method would be more effective in attracting the ladies.
I got to check out a couple of Edmonton's great watering holes during my visit on top of a visit to the University of Alberta's Power Plant. At the Power Plant I got to watch a few bands, join a small mosh pit and meet a very attractive 25-year-old U of A English major who I thought I had a shot with until she said "would you please not put your arm around me?" As it turned out, I spent the night on a couch at her friends place. Oh well, I had a place to sleep at least.
We also ate at some nice restaurants in the heart of downtown Edmonton, such as the Japanese Village, where we spend $200 on sushi our first night there (Jan. 19), and the Old Spaghetti factory.
Other memories of note were meeting Bruce Dowbiggin, a sports columnist for the Calgary Herald and one of Canada's top sports broadcast journalists, watching a dance off in the hotel, and hanging out with another person with a very similar name - Alastair, very close, but my spelling is Alistair. Nonetheless, I sat with him at a table and for the first time in my life I was in the same room as somebody with the same name. As you could imagine, it got a little confusing when that name was said.
A few memorable quotes:
Dave: I probably gained 20 pounds on this trip.
Jeff: We spent $200 on sushi?
Matt and myself: Whiskey in the jaro (with arm in windmill motion).
Left to right: Myself, Kevin Keane from the University of Toronto and Matt Silver at the Canadian University Press Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
I was only back in school for about a week and a half and I found myself at the Kamloops airport about to board a plane to Vancouver, where I would transfer onto another plane to Edmonton for the 2005 Canadian University Press (CUP) Conference. Now if this trip were half as enjoyable as the trip to Newfoundland last year it would be one worth missing the week of school. When I was sitting in a seat in the boarding section of the airport listening to Dave and Dale joke about highjacking the plane I knew that I would be for some serious entertainment. What was amazing was how laid back people were about their conversation. In fact, the guy sitting next to me was beside himself laughing.
As it turned out, this trip was another great experience. Because our flight was delayed four hours, we each got $200 off our next Air Canada flight, and in addition we got to fly executive class from Vancouver to Edmonton. There are some great additions to flying executive class not offered on regular class, like wider reclinable seats, screens flipping down from the ceiling, and free alcohol! And since our flight was only about an hour, we had only so long to drink what we could. We ran out of time to drink too much, but we weren't going to let that slow us down. We proceeded to asking our shuttle driver to stop at a liquor store on the way to our hotel. At the liquor store we picked up three flats of beer. Now for six people it's a fair bit but we didn't want to run out of alcohol on this trip. Let's rewind a bit. There were six of us who went - Matt, Dave, Jeff, Dale, Graham and myself.
I shared a hotel room with Matt, who I totally saw a new, more relaxed side of this week. The regular Matt who some know as being a little uptight, worrisome and too busy to party was on this trip to drink as well. He came up with the idea that we fill our bathtub with ice because our garbage cans and sink just didn't have the capacity to keep many beers cold. So while I was at a workshop last Friday he filled our tub up with ice and beer so there would be some cold ones ready to enjoy in the evening. We then decided to push both the up and down button on the elevator so people would have no choice but to stop on our floor, where we would yell "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy!" with drinks in hand. It worked for a few people, but upon noticing an abundance of sausage in our hotel room we figured maybe a different method would be more effective in attracting the ladies.
I got to check out a couple of Edmonton's great watering holes during my visit on top of a visit to the University of Alberta's Power Plant. At the Power Plant I got to watch a few bands, join a small mosh pit and meet a very attractive 25-year-old U of A English major who I thought I had a shot with until she said "would you please not put your arm around me?" As it turned out, I spent the night on a couch at her friends place. Oh well, I had a place to sleep at least.
We also ate at some nice restaurants in the heart of downtown Edmonton, such as the Japanese Village, where we spend $200 on sushi our first night there (Jan. 19), and the Old Spaghetti factory.
Other memories of note were meeting Bruce Dowbiggin, a sports columnist for the Calgary Herald and one of Canada's top sports broadcast journalists, watching a dance off in the hotel, and hanging out with another person with a very similar name - Alastair, very close, but my spelling is Alistair. Nonetheless, I sat with him at a table and for the first time in my life I was in the same room as somebody with the same name. As you could imagine, it got a little confusing when that name was said.
A few memorable quotes:
Dave: I probably gained 20 pounds on this trip.
Jeff: We spent $200 on sushi?
Matt and myself: Whiskey in the jaro (with arm in windmill motion).
