The year started with a digital camera as you will notice from the amount of attached photos and different events or gatherings with friends that were a part of my everyday life in Edmonton but had not managed to be recorded in photos before. Unfotunately, this year also started with a break-up with Pawel which brought again a change in my lifestyle. There is no end to changes New Year Eve Celebration Since both Pawel and I were very social people, we decided to organize a New Year Eve party for our friends for rare ones that stayes in Edmonton during those holidays. It ended up being an international gathering with cooking specials from all over the world, tons of laughter, good music, and - playing Mafia and a few other games. Fantastic welcome to another year Winter Fun As it usually happens in Edmonton, the year also started with the winter fun. Besides regular day trips for skating in Hawrelak Prak with my friends (Louise and Carrie), as a peer leader (volunteer) at the International Centre I organized (at that time already traditional) skating in Hawrelak Park with international students. Already adjusted international crew taught its new friends how to have winter fun in Edmonton. 1
New Winter Trip to the Rockies Again Business-Related (Jasper, February ) As the last year, my research training program took us to Jasper for another seminar 1 day of work and 2 days of fun. It was not such a bad combination But the best part of that weekend were dear people who I got to know over the previous 1.5 year of participation in that research program (Jon, Ivan, Donna, Hernando, Diana, Justin and Christina). The first day of the fun I spent skiing on a nearby ski hill and enjoying wonderful views of the Jasper valley. The second day I tried ice walking in a frozen Maligne canyon where I hiked the summer before. It was really interesting to walk on the bottom of the canyon, step throught almost knee-deep water, and be amazed with the winter creativity of the nature with beautiful frozen waterfalls 2
We did not skip swimming in an outdoor pool either even though it was -15 C outside. (For a photo on the left I risked taking off my winter jacket on that temperature for the sake of the picture - and got completely frozen in half a minute. ) On a way back to Edmonton, we stopped along the highway briefly to enjoy a bit more spectacular winter scenery in Canadian Rockies 3
Skiing with International Students (Banff National Park, February ) Two weeks later I was on the road again, this time for a ski trip in Banff with international students. It was my first ski trip to that part of the Canadian Rockies. Skiing itself was fantastic, scenery was even bettery, but a company was the best part of this trip. During this weekend I connected wonderfully with Soraya (Iran) and Alexei (Russia), both of whom I knew from the International Centre and who became my close friends in the upcoming years. Their company meant a lot to me during that trip and in the months that followed. Skiing itself was really interesting in a great company even though we somehow managed to end up skiing down the frozen waterfall (I would not comment on the steepness of that part of the trail that we chose by making a wrong turn ). Let s just say that it was pretty steep and icy experience Besides a waterfall, there were also spectacular falls, falling into deep snow and, of course, great laughs 4
And the scenery around us was taking our breaths away 5
Winter that winter was pretty busy for me with rare meetings with friends. True enough, there were a few birthdays, movie nights, and an international quiz experience. My circle of friends continued to expand with Giorgio (Switzerland) and Konstantinos (Cyprus). But I simply could not wait for the spring to come Here are a few scenes from Edmonton s River Valley on March 08, International Women s Day. On that day during my elementary school year in the Balkans we would go to a nearby forest to pick flowers for our mothers and female teachers. Here is how Edmonton looks like at that time of the year 6
With the Spring The spring brought in warmer days, lots of sunshine, awakening of the nature and big changes. I decided to change the apartment and move in with Louise, one of my closest friends at the time. After 3.5 years of living in an apartment by myself, it was time to say good-bye to that place and take with me a ton of unforgettable memories of wonderful moments of living there. But instead of feeling sad about leaving that place, I was truly excited about new chapter of life with Louise. Here are a few more photos of my home, sweet home from April before the moving started. In a few weeks came a farewell party with friends and a beginning of a new life 7
Joy of Moving Considering how many times I have moved so far, it is good that I still enjoy the experience. It was even better to share that experience with one of my closest friends, Louise. We cried laughing quite a few times. It is impossible to describe that experience Maybe photos on this page would not mean much to you, but for me each of them represents an excellent reason for good laughs Louise and I found a 2-bedroom apartment in a great location, half of a distance to the university compared to my previous place (~20 min walk)... It was actually the first place we saw in our 2-day search. We saw a few other places so we could say we did not take the first one we found. I stayed in that place until I moved away from Edmonton 3.5 years later It seems that it was a pretty good choice. 8
Home Fun in the New Apartment Life with Louise brought some new fun like cooking adventures together (although none of us was a big fun of cooking), suntanning on our huge balcony, getting together with friends, Louise s birthday and movie nights 9
Spring in the River Valley Spring also brought biking trips in the River Valley with friends 10
Basketball Memories Spring time also came with new basketball tournaments under the blue sky that were more enjoyable than playing indoors. Older man besides me on the pictures on the right is Dr. David Wrangler who has been playing basketball at the University of Alberta for the last 30 years and almost always it was on the hoop just behind us. Tat hoop has a sign with his name. Dave is older than 65 years of age and at that time he was a retired professor, but still pretty active on a basketball court. His positive energy and enthusiasm for a good game of basketball were fascinating and inspiring for our group that was getting together in the main gym to play at noon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Let me mention here that members of our team were older than 55. It was probably one of the best basketball teams that I have ever been a part of. That spring I played two basketball tournaments. One of them was Corporate Challenge tournament so I played for the University of Alberta. We won a silver medal that year The other tournament was a traditional North-American Hoop-it-up tournament. That year I received an anonymous phone call from one of the basketball players to join him and his team for this tournament. Oh, that was such a difficult decision. ;) A few weeks later that dream team (with Darren, James, Brian and one og their colleagues) won a champion It is interesting how many rewards are present at North- American amateur comptetiotions that it is almost impossible not to win at least one of them. It was a fantastic basketball spring in Edmonton 11
Summer in Edmonton In between Many Hiking Trips to the Rockies and a 4- Week Trip to Europe I do not remember much of summer in Edmonton because I hardly spent any time in the city itself that summer. Hiking trips started at the end of May with a trip to Jasper with Louise and then with Alexei. It was followed by 6-day biking and hiking trip in Jasper and Banff in an international company. Soon after that I was gone to Europe. Upone return, I went for a backpacking trip to Mount Robson with Louise. That was already the end of August and a sign that school fun was about to start again Somehow in the meantime I managed to sqeeze in a few gatherings with friends for Nasser s thesis defense, Donna s birthday, and Contantinos es farewell, then Louise s new car, and picking up fruit on a farm near Edmonton (Photos and stories about hiking trips and trip to Europe that summer you can see in separate letters.) 12
Nasser and Louise At the end of August came a wonderful unexpected surprise that Nasser is coming back from Iran to Edmonton to continue his life with Louise. Louise was SO HAPPY It was wonderful to see so much happiness and joy in her Two weeks later Nasser arrived to Edmonton to live with us in the apartment for some time. A few weeks later they had an engagement party. I was happy to see that two of my closest friends will continue life together like in the previous 3 years 13
Fall in Edmonton The end of August brought a smell of school reponsibilites after a crazy and unforgettable summer. At that time I went to Calgary again for a weekend to analyze some research data. I took advantage of that trip to spent more time with Carrie and catch up on with life stories from the previous few months. At the of August I volunteered again for an orientation of the international students, had a great time preparing a presentation and a fashion show with a topic how to survive a winter in Edmonton, and again met tons of new interesting people from all over the world. In September days were still warm enough so Giorgio and I managed to go on a few biking trips in the River Valley to enjoy the sun and nature. Anyway, Edmontonians cooled down a bit that September with a too early snow fall. Fortunately, that one managed to melt a few days later. 14
Fall season started again with gatherings with friends: birthdays, dancing parties, movie nights, game nights with ping-pong and Monopolly, parties in the International Centre and tons of laughter 15
I did not notice a transition from the fall to the winter when it comes to socializing because regular gatherings continued under different reasons ranging from cultural night at the International Centre and Thanksgiving celebration, to cooking experients, movie nights and dancing parties It seems that we did not lack creativity to come up with reasons for getting together 16
Academic Reasons for Celebrations The fall came with a few academic reasons for celebrations. As one of the winners of one of the prestigious scholarships for PhD students at the University of Alberta, I attended the Teaching and Learning Celebration and a few weeks late a dinner organized for the winners of the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship. It was a great excuse to post here a phot of my great mentor, Dr. Art Quinney. Without Art, my graduate school experience surely would not have been as positive. Art is such an incredible mentor It seems to me that in 4 years of working with him up to that point (and it continued for the whole 7 years of my graduate school) Art was the best part of my grad school experience. That fall was also Nasser s PhD convocation so we had 2 of my birthday parties and Nasser s convocation party in our apartment all in one week! It seemed that we were not lacking socializing. 17
One Unforgettable Halloween Nasser, Louise and I decided to dress up for Halloween and join a party at the Internationl Centre. One of Nasser s friends from Iran who was visiting at that time joined us in our idea he did not have much choice. ;) Making up costumes and coloring our faces was tons of fun. Later that evening we arrived to the International Centre and were by far the oldest ones there (and definitely a part of the craziest ones too ). Nasser took this opportunity to have lots of fun scaring little young Chinese girls (1 st or 2 nd year undergrads) that were already terrified of the idea of entering the haunted house in one part of the International Centre. Then came Nasser s unforgettable romantic dance with a skeleton. Somewhat latter we laughed so hard while watching Nasser organizing his team for the game of wrapping up a volunteer into a toilet paper with a goal of making a mummy. In one moment that wrapped up student said a bit worried that he cannot breathe. Being in the middle of his job, Nasser responded to him quickly: You don t need to breathe. You are dead anyway! and continued with his job. It was laugh to tears 18
Birthday Celebrations At that time was also my birthday that I celebrated with a few parties. On the evening of the birthday, Louise and Nasser made a dinner for me with a Mexican tacos and with their singing and dancing performance at the table. Later that evening, we had a party with closest friends (Louise, Nasser, Enrique and Giorgio) with music and laughter 19
Big birthday party with friends was organized that weekend. What a wonderful evening filled with laughter and joy I truly enjoyed seeing so many dear people from all over the world and in very different phases in their lives with an amazing spectrum of professional interests that get along so well together and share the joy of life. Thank you all, dear friends, for making a difference in this world and for being a part of my life 20
Movie Nights - Fall At that already traditionally, our apartment was a place for getting together for movie nights. Nasser started that tradition in 2000 when I arrived to Edmonton so we just continued since. We would usually watch international movies from different countries, most of the time the movies suggested within our international circle of friends. These movies were always an excellent opportunity to learn something about a culture from a particular part of the world and, of course, to have fun. One of the favorite movies that almost all of my friends in Edmonton had seen was Black Cat, White Cat directed by Emir Kusturica. Athough humor is not cross-cultural (cannot be easily shared with people from different cultures) this movie was something that literally all my friends enjoyed wholeheartedly and laughed really hard. It seems that in the last 6.5 years in Canada I organized a movie night to watch this movie at least 10 times. Many of my friends have seen it with pleasure a few times. The last movie night this year I organized on the night before leaving for Mexico in the morning. I hardly had time to pack because the party went on till 01 am and I was leaving to the airport at 05 am It was my Christmas party with friends because I spent Cristmas in Mexico that year. 21
Christmas Parties and Similar Excuses for Getting Together There were many other interesting gatherings with friends before I left for Mexico for 2 weeks for a (prolonged ) Christmas break. More about trip to Mexico in a separate letter. It was an excellent trip just in time to master a survival course in Spanish that I just took that semester in Edmonton-Hispanic Bilingual Association school that semester. Reasons for getting together ranged from the Cultural Night and Holiday Party at the International Centre to movie nights and Christmas parties (majority of which I skipped that year because of my trip to somewhat warmer Mexico). 22
In the End, Bits and Pieces of Home Fun Any comment would be simply redundant 23
(December ) Wishing you to remaind yourself that life has always been about laughing together, loving each other, seeking adventure, believing in our dreams and making a difference... Wish you tons of joy, love, challenges and dreams on your way in 2005! Thank you for making a difference in this world and for being a part of my life. Happy New Year! Love, Sandy (February 2007) 24