Elmira Maple Syrup festival 27.3.2010

"As winter slips away into springtime and the daytime temperature begins to rise above freezing, many families in Ontario return to their sugar bush to make maple syrup. The boiling of sap to make maple syrup and maple sugar is one of the oldest traditions in North America and is part of Canada’s heritage. Canada is famous around the world for its pure Maple Syrup."
(http://www.elmiramaplesyrup.com)

Tell me, could I have missed it? :) Of course not! The biggest maple syrup festival in the world just round the corner - in Elmira! It was an amazing experience. There was many kinds local farmers products, mainly food and crafts. Remarkable was Big Ass Garlic, pieorgy, and of course pancakes! Also we saw how maple sap is gained from trees and how maple syrup is extracted of it.
Important part of the festival was waiting in a queue: for tickets to buy pancakes, for pancakes, for a bus to go to the forest, ... simply for anything. Queueing is a part of daily life in Canada :)

Pictures are traditionally on Picasa or Facebook!

CA04 Elmira Maple Syrup Festival 27.3.2010

St. Patrick's Day

With a little delay, but ... 
I didn't know that St. Patrick's Day, the Irish holiday celebrated on 17th of March, is so popular here. The city was literally covered with people wearing green, Irish pubs were full since morning (but not only Irish ones). It was still a bit chilly but sunny Wednesday. I decided to skip my afternoon organization-design class and enjoy the day.

We had a special guest on a visit in Waterloo: Marilyn from Montréal. We started the evening with few pitchers in Grad House (Graduate house in the campus) and then wanted to continue in Bomber (a pub also in the campus), which turned to be unrealistic as the queue for the entrance was longer than usually and didn't seem to be moving at all. So we changed our intention and headed to Molly's Irish bar. Of course there was a queue too, but much shorter. For the first time I had a green beer! Weird to see, but the taste was the same like normal. I still wonder what they put inside :)

Cheers!

Management Consulting Case Competition

During past night I was busy with preparation for a Management consulting competition witch I'd signed up some time ago. In a team of 4 people we got a case about Symbian and today we were defending our recommendation where should Symbian focus itself in the future. In the jury were siting consultants from Deloitte, McKinsey, AZ Associates and BCG. It was a very great experience and a chance to use my knowledge from last ISC Parťák weekend! :) I think we have synthesized quite interesting and innovative approach to the problem, of course fully in correspondence with MECE principle. Despite the fact we didn't win I'm proud about our solution and that we managed to put it together during just one night (after changing the previous strategy on Friday evening :).

What else is happening these days?
The spring has arrived to Canada! It's been warm for more then a week, with temperature climbing over 10°C and all the snow is melted. This winter was unlike in Europe very moderate.
I'm already thinking about another trip adventure having found very reasonable tickets to some interesting sunny destinations ...

Québec trip!

During our Reading week in mid February we made a long awaited trip to Québec province. The Reading week is a study break for midterms. For us exchange students it means of course a week-long holiday :)

On Saturday 13. early morning Andy and me caught Greyhound bus to Toronto, where we changed to Megabus to Montréal. The journey takes 7 hours, fortunately there is a break in the middle to release legs and the bus is spacious enough.

Andy'd managed free accommodation through couchsurfing, so from the bus station we set out directly to Marilyn's place. On the way we passed by a Czech bar Bílý Kůň, which was also visited later that day (and the day after) :) It was my first time staying via couchsurfing and I got more than nicely excited, having already set up my own profile. That weekend we were staying at Marilyn's even in 4 people - together with Katariina and Akari, 2 girls doing their exchange in Windsor, the very south Canadian city just next to Detroit. In the evening we all went to a Portuguese restaurant. So amazing food! There was a couchsurfing meeting in one bar, which couldn't be missed and later already mentioned Bílý Kůň. It was such a great evening! I love Montréal!