
13th May 2009 was the first day i stepped into a western country, Canada. The city where i visited called Calgary, located at the province of Alberta. Didn't sound familiar to you? Okay, remember Gary Chao? I heard that he once lived here. Cal-Gary ≈ Chao Gary. Here got a lot of cow girl, or you can say "Cow Girly". It is located not far from the US-Canada border.
When I were here, it was summer. So the weather is pretty suit to me, since I am from Malaysia. The place i lived is pretty nice, too, address is 150 Rundleson Pl NE. My house is a landed house, with a basement, basement is rented by others. Heard that basement is more warm during the winter. There is a thermostat in our house which i am not familiar with. Sometime i will wake up freezing, sometime burning. I guessed I used 3 months to figure out how it works.
Summer is a good time to visit a four-season country. There are a lot of events happening during summer. The biggest event here is Calgary Stampede at downtown. It is like a fun fair, with mini concerts, cowboy show(the Rodeo) and etc. This year Stampede, Simple Plan was here for the concert. I was lucky to witness it. They are rock! Yee-Har!!!
Nearby Calgary, there are two national parks that I have visited, Banff and Jasper. Banff is around 2 hours away from Calgary and Jasper is around 4 hours away. In both parks, you can find hot springs, lot of natural beauties and etc. We have visited Lake Louise at Banff and Columbia Icefield near Jasper. Lake Louise is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1948- 1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. The province of Alberta is also named for Princess Louise.
Canada is the world's second largest country by total area. It has ten provinces and three territories. One thing I have learned from the local is that western Canada mainly speak English, but more to the east, French become predominant. And in Quebec, specifically, 80% of the people is speaking French. And they even wanted to be independence in 1980 and 1995.
There are some French that I have learned here in Calgary from the sign board. Bonjour - which mean Welcome/Hello, Sortie - which mean Exit, Chaud - which mean Hot(Not to describe shawty).