By: Ellie Deane

While I have been here coming up on four months, I am about half way through my semester here at University of Calgary, which began at the end of August. The weather for the most part has been amazing, other than a couple of weeks of rain. This week we had our first drop of snow, going from training in singlet to rowing in the snow only a week later sure is different to home. 

One of the best things I decided to do once applying to UofC was to connect with the local rowing club. Since arriving I spent most of my time before starting uni rowing with the Calgary Rowing Club and UofC Dinos and traveling around both Alberta and other parts of the country. Joining the rowing club has meant that I have made some amazing friends automatically. We have been lucky enough to travel to Vancouver for Western Canadian University Rowing Champs a couple of weekends ago as well as racing in Calgary prior to that. At the beginning of November we are travelling to Montreal to compete at Canadian University champs, which will be an incredible opportunity. 

I have been lucky enough to do plenty of traveling during my time here. Upon arriving my Mum and I travelled around Alberta for 2 weeks, hitting all the highlights that you see when scrolling through instagram. We visited Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise, seeing my first bear at Johnston Canyon along with much other different wildlife. We also did a spur of the moment trip up to Jasper, which provide many opportunities to see more wildlife such as Bald eagles, Osprey and Elk, as well as seeing the impact of the wildfires that wiped out 1/3 of the town last year. In our final week together we went to the world famous Calgary Stampede, attending the afternoon rodeo as well as a night show, I was also lucky enough to go many more times with my friends. 

I have also seen much more of the country than I originally planned when I got on the plane to come over. In early August I took a trip to Ontario to watch my flatmate and my new friends rowing in one of Canadas biggest regattas. While I was there I spent time in Toronto, St Catharines, Niagara Falls and Ottawa. I have also done many day trips with my flatmate such as to Drumheller to visit the worlds largest dinosaur and the Hoo Doos, hiking in Kananaskis and biking in southern Calgary. We have also spent a couple of weekends up in Rocky Mountain House at her parents Bison farm. I was fortunate that a few weeks ago I had a friend come over from home to visit, together we spent a few days hiking in Banff as well as showing her around Calgary and going to a hockey game.

Through reaching out to the rowing club prior to leaving I was able to find a great flat. I chose this option as even though I applied for on campus accommodation, the waitlist ended up at over 200 people so I decided to look for other options. Although we had met on FaceTime before coming over, I was still a little bit nervous as to what it would be like to live in a different country with someone that I had only talked to once. However, it has been the best decision I made in terms of my time here in Canada. My flatmate has become a great friend and we spend a lot of time together. We share the upstairs of the house, with her sister and another flatmate sharing the downstairs. Each level of the house has its own kitchen, bathroom and living room. Although we run as separate flats, its great having other flatmates just downstairs and we all spend a lot of time together. 

Although I’m looking forward to the next two months and seeing what it holds, I am far from ready to leave Calgary. I have a few trips planned around studying before I leave. Going to Montreal at the start of November, then heading off to London and Edinburgh to visit some friends during reading week (mid-term break over here but its only one week). Just after exams my flatmate and I have booked a weekend to go skiing as well as a weekend trip up to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory just before I fly out to meet my family in America for a white Christmas.