April in Waterloo

I've promised a continuation of my canadian story, and here it comes!

  The time how it's passing
It just so happened that I met one amazing person and we were spending quite a lot of time together since then :)

Spring arrived very quickly to Waterloo and unlike in Europe it became quite warm and pleasant. While Europe was buried under snow, we were enjoying lovely spring sun rays and I could have biked almost everyday. Since some time ago I was visiting gym at Columbia IceField arena (CIF). It was much better than the old gym at Physical Activity Complex. Not only there were actually many girls going, but also it was modern with much more machines. Only sauna was missing, so PAC remained just for sauna and sometimes swimming.

There were many pubs and many farewell parties. I organised several times common dinners or apéros at our house. This is another great advantage against campus housing: you can do whatever you like and there is no security coming to kick you out! :) At the end we got much more together with other exchange students then before. Was it the condition of off-campus living in the beginning I was not so much in the contact? Or did I experience the arrival cultural shock? I would say I did which surprised me. At the end I was finally feeling like at home, despite the expensive beer, tasteless food and other little things which are insignificant. I enjoyed the last months to the max and it happened so much in a very short period of time. All the tripping, partying and stuff that made me busy, but most importantly my friends, created the time I'll never forget... 
  
  Tripping
The second day of April I got sunburned while visiting Cambridge with Celine. Cambridge is a small city close to K-W, there is a UW Faculty of Architecture and iXpress ends there. There is a lovely city centre, but with very few things to do, though :) Later in May I moved in there for the last two weeks (but about that later).

CA05 Cambridge 2.4.2010

Few days after Sophie arrived to Waterloo to visit Damien.
On the weekend of 10-11. April we had planed to make a car trip and as a destination was chosen Bruce Peninsula on Huron Lake. We were 4 in a car: Sophie, Damien, Oscar and me. This peninsula creates a border between the lake and Georgian Bay. The place is a popular summer resort for its crystalline green and clean water. However at the time we went there the spring had just started and everything was abandoned and holidaymaker-free :) I found a nice accommodation in a motel in Owen Sound, a small city in the beginning of the peninsula.
The first day we made a trip to a Bruce peninsula NP, visited a lighthouse at the end of the land and hiked to beautiful Grotto, a cave area. On the way to our motel we got stopped by a policeman for overspeeding (113km/h on 80 limit). Fortunately the driver Damien was just warned to drive slower - it was a really wise policeman knowing that going little faster in this desert land is not a big crime! In the evening we went to an Irish bar for a dinner and few pints.
Next day there were Inglis Waterfalls, Blue Mountain and Wasaga Beach on our program.
Blue Mountain is probably the most famous Ontario skiing resort, with the elevation around 500m! :D We decided to conquer the "hill" by ourselves and in comfortable 30mins hike we stepped on the top. There is a great view over the bay. Wasaga beach is the longest (14km) freshwater beach in the world! The weather wasn't so warm to make us swim, but at least we had a nice picnic. With full stomachs and even without having a map we found the way to our home.

CA06 Bruce Peninsula 10.-11.4

19th of Apr, in the middle of our exams, we went with Celine for a day trip to Toronto. The weather was just perfect and helped to create a great day. The highlights were Kensington Market and a romantic sunset from CN tower.

CA07 Toronto with Celine 19.4

  School
Lectures at the UNI had already finished and during April there was just an exam term. First of April we had our final group project presentation from MSCI 442 - "Impacts of IS on Society" course. The presentation went quite smoothly, despite the fact we put it together just the day before and didn't make any trials. In my opinion we defeated our paper quite well and managed to answer all questions. 16th Apr there was a final exam, not so easy though. 

My English class ESL101 ended at the end of March with a final group discussion and a small farewell banquet.

MSCI 311 - "Organisation Theory and Design" - remained the last one with the exam on 21st Apr. Going again through all six multiple-choice quizzes, we wrote during the term, turned to be a very smart idea as the exam was composed from the same questions :P

In my opinion writing tests and having to work during the term is much smarter as then the final is not so difficult and doesn't create the entire grade like it's in Czech Uni case.

This exam ended my school term and just next day Ivan "Pivko" and Franta arrived to Canada and we started our big trip (in the next post).