Rides Restaurant

Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Rides. The outside of the building has painted murals in an automotive theme and there are hub caps around the top edge. Inside, are car and bike parts and lots of photos and pictures mounted on the walls. There is even a mini motorcycle mounted in one of the walls.

The concept was to create a place where you can relate to cars & bikes but not see every thing in one sitting. You need to sit in a different place each time you visit to take it all in. Lots of the parts have been donated by local business houses & they are thanked & listed on a large board just inside the front door. An interesting place to spend a few hours enjoying good food & a drink while taking in the scenery. They do an excellent steak.

The Neighbourhood

As the temperatures have become milder, and the evenings lighter due to daylight saving, Craig and I have started walking around the campus and the surrounding neighbourhood.
Looking back towards the campus, you can just see the catering restaurant -'Garden Court,' with the green awnings.

Looking from the back of our residence to the coulees as night falls.

There is a track that leads from the back of the residence around the top of the coulees and to the houses on the edge of the campus.

These photos are of the houses in the streets bordering the campus. Stone gardens are very popular as they survive the winter and are easy to maintain.

Native Awareness Week

A week of information sharing and a celebration of Native culture. Usually held in the spring.

This tipi was errected at the front of the College and remained in place for the week.

Native Awareness Week

During Native Awareness Week, there were special activities at the College each day.







Craig and I were enthralled with the traditional dancing demonstration held one lunchtime.


The costumes were stunning, with intricate beadwork that is hard to see in the photos. All the dancers wore traditional Blackfoot outfits.

The dances at Powwows have a strong personal and spiritual dimension. An MC explained the history of the dance and the different parts of the outfit before they started. There are many different stories and interpretations for each dance, depending on tribal and family background. Men's and Women's Fancy dance, the Chicken Dance and the Grass Dance were a few of the ones we saw. Some of the dances were so fast it was difficult to take photos of the dancers without them being blurry.



These two dancers are the Mum and Dad of the youngest drummer.


Chicken Dancers - each man wears a porcupine hair roach on his head and a feather bustle. The dancers step quickly, crouch and rise as they imitate the mating dance of the prairie chickens.

Open House - Lethbridge College Mascot

The Lethbridge College mascot was there to welcome everyone. Student advisors acted as tour guides showing people around.

Open House at LCC

“Experience LCC,” the annual College open house, for perspective students and their parents. Stalls were set up for each program. Each stall had instructors and/or current students attending. There were lots of demonstrations, games, quizzes, giveaways and draws.

Craig won a pen in a chicken throwing competition - (it was a rubber chicken).

New Subdivision

Over the week-end it was windy, so instead of walking we went for drive through a new subdivision close to the College. It was interesting looking at the finished and semi finished houses. We also watched some roofers nailing down the wooden slats onto a new roof. They look so different to the corrugated iron roofing at home. Note there are no letterboxes either. Some houses had door slots and others had postboxes at the end of the street. We liked the style of the homes and even though they look similar each one is slightly different.

You can just see one of the roofers in this shot, they were straped on with a harness. The construction seemed to be some type of dense partical board and then the cladding goes over top.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is widely celebrated here. In Canada, Saint Patrick's Day is an official holiday in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, but unfortunately not in Alberta. There are even parades in some of the main centres.

Some of the library staff were going to the St. Patrick's Day Celebration & Irish Ceili in Lethbridge, and invited Craig and I to the party or ceilidh, (pronounced kaylee).

There was live music by the band Glencoulee and traditional Irish Dancers. Glencoulee band is made up of instructors from the College. They were very good and have released several CDs.

This link has more info about the band.

http://www.wowcommunications.ca/glencoulee/hear_us.htm

More Snow

This week we had more snow. I'm sure the students in close proximity to our residence think we are strange looking up at the snow falling in awe. It was very heavy and quite beautiful, leaving a white blanket over everything.

The romance did wear thin for Craig however the next morning when he had to spend 20 minutes scraping the snow and ice from the car windows and warming up the motor. You have to really concentrate when driving in it too. Even walking to work can be slippery. They throw salt crystals on the walkways to help, and the snow sweepers are out very early clearing the paths. By lunchtime it is nearly all melted away. Some days the temperature starts off at minus 4 in the morning and can be a warm 14 degrees by the afternoon.

These photos are the view from our residence door at night (above) and outside my office window the next day.

Don and Kathy's place.

We were invited out to Kathy (my exchange partner) and Don's place. It is situated about 20minutes from town, however it took us a lot longer because we got very lost and had to drive back towards town and start again. When we finally arrived we could hear the coyotes calling across the prairies - an eerie sound. Because it is so flat here we could see all the way to Montana (USA) it is only about 2 hours to the border.

We were given a tour of the house and property then Don took us out for Chinese. The restaurant was only 5 minutes up the road but seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Nobleford is a town of 800. The food was excellent and we spent a pleasant evening with Don discussing the differences in countries etc.

Galt Museum & Archives

In our quest to learn more about the local area we decided to visit the Galt Museum in Lethbridge. We found out about the human history of Southwestern Alberta. The museum is very similar to Te Papa at home only on a much smaller scale. There was also a special exhibit - The Eva Brewster Story. A shocking chronological history of a Canadian Auschwitz survivor, displayed as photographic storyboards.

The museum overlooks the coulees and has spectacular views of the High Level Bridge and Oldman River valley.

If you enlarge the photo you can just see the Lethbridge University built into the side of the hill.

Bears on Campus!

Our first week here we came face to face with a bear.

This is the college mascot, a Kodiak bear, a variety of grizzly bear found on Kodiak Island, off the coast of Alaska. Lethbridge College states that this extremely large bear epitomizes strength, courage, stamina and an undying perseverance which ultimately ends in triumph and success. I think he is a pretty impressive and appropriate mascot for a college. His home on campus is a glass case in the Physical Education building. I walk by him every day.

Henderson Park

Henderson Park has a beautiful lake, walking trails, picnic areas and playgrounds. Unfortunately the day we decided to visit the wind was pretty fierce so we didn't walk very far. There was still a lot of ice on the lake and the wind was blowing it up onto the rocks making it look like surf from a distance.
Craig couldn't believe how thick the ice is.

Facilities here include a golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts, a campground, an ice arena and a basketball stadium. At the west end of the park are the rose garden and Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden. We thought we would wait till summer to visit the gardens.

Learning Commons

There are two learning commons, this one is known as the library commons. The entrance is through the library either side of the back of the information desk. As you can see it is well used by students.

There are learning commons staff who help with computer problems, learning cafe staff who help with assignment issues and library staff to help with research. So students have access to some great support services and assistance.

Lethbridge College and Buchanan Library

This is the main entrance of Lethbridge College .

It takes two minutes to walk down this path from our residence to the library.

This is where I work, Buchanan library.


These photos are of Kathy's office which I am using while I am here. There is a very pleasant outlook from the window.

I spend most of my time on the information desk so I can observe and learn from my new colleagues.




Information desk

Front EntranceFront entrance with circulation desk to the right.

This library uses a different system for organising the resources, that may seem like a small thing to most people but for a librarian it is a big deal.

This is the view from my office, past the information desk to the front of the library.

My first day here was 11 hours as there was a meeting at 5pm. I didn't want to miss it as it was an opportunity to meet some of the senior staff here at the college.