Edmonton Adventure!

I started my Winter break a week earlier than most people. The last of my finals was on the 12th of December, and unlike most people, I had no travel plans. Home was too far away for such a short break, and I didn't really feel like going anywhere. Then, I figured that I might as well visit the places of the city I'm in! I'm always hearing that Edmonton is "Deadmonton" with nothing going on, but that's not true. I found a site that tells of various activities and events around the city, and my goal for the duration of my break is to go to as many of these places as possible.

Adventure #1: Edmonton River Valley Zoo

I started last Sunday, two days after my last final. I went to the zoo with a friend and luckily I met another friend who had three in his group because we had to walk part of the way to the zoo along an isolated path in the dark. My flash makes it seem really creepy, but it was just dark.
The reason we went at night was because the zoo had this festival of lights thing going on, so obviously we had to go when it was dark in order to see the lights. But it wasn't very impressive and I was hoping to see more animals - especially the red pandas but they were hiding inside. =[

Adventure #2: Art Gallery of Alberta

 On Wednesday, I decided to go for a little cultural learning and went to the art gallery downtown. It was really interesting and the art on display was certainly worth a look or two. I've never been one to enjoy art that much before, but since taking a basic art course my eyes have been opened to the world of art.

Adventure #3: Capitol Theatre

There's a small theatre in Fort Edmonton Park and conveniently, the way to get there was to stop at the same place I got off to get to the zoo. But I didn't have to cross the river to get there, and I went during the daytime with a friend. The show we went to watch was called It's a Wonderful Life: Radio Show, it wasn't the traditional theatre with acting, but more of voice acting. Though the actors and actresses were in front of us, it was done so that it gave the pretence of a radio show. They were reading from scripts and when they weren't speaking they sat on the couch behind the microphones. It's a pretty small stage but they manoeuvred it well and they had sound effects that was made manually. That was cool to watch, and the synchronization was impeccable. (On the left of the picture above, you can see a table with bottles and glasses, that area was where they made all the sounds from.)

Fort Edmonton Park itself seems pretty small and doesn't seem to have much. It did look like the buildings themselves were two-dimensional and felt like a set of a movie or something. Maybe because it was winter break and nothing was open that gave off that feeling. People say it's a bustling place in the spring and summer. I shall be back then!



I'm not going to count this as an adventure, but more of an outing. I went to Chinatown today with two friends to eat Dim Sum! A traditional Sunday brunch type of meal for Chinese people - though now any day of the week works fine for us. And as always when I have dim sum, I ate way too much. The thing is, you don't feel full until the end and you realize you still have lots of food on the table. Anyway it was worth it! Haven't had dim sum since I got back from home, and the food was good.

However, we had a bit of drama added to our meal. There was this drunk guy at the table next to ours who at first kept staring at my friend, so I offered to change seats with her. We didn't realize he was drunk then but after awhile, when the manager refused to get him another beer he started making a fuss. I don't know why they didn't get rid of him sooner, because he came over to our table twice and started talking nonsense. This is why you don't go to Chinatown at night people. Daytime is already scary and dangerous enough. I was hoping they would give us the meal for free, or at least a discount for having our lunch disturbed, but we weren't so lucky.

Two more weeks of adventures to go! I may post again next week, lots of stuff planned! Oh, and if you're interested in the site I get the events and stuff from, here it is: http://exploreedmonton.com/

Have a Merry Christmas!