CAN 101 Intro to Canada

Even before I came to Maine more than two months ago, I was hoping I would be able to go to Canada at some point. Surprisingly, that point came sooner than expected. After finding out about a field trip for CAN 101, a class that I don’t actually attend, I was beyond thrilled. That field trip enabled me to go to Ottawa, Canada’s capital for $ 100. This amount included the bus trip, two nights in a very nice hotel, and entrance fees and tour fees to a number of places. Score!

Altogether, I think we were a group of about 50 people, about 1/5 being international students. We left at 8 am on Thursday, October 21. The bus trip was almost nine hours long but it actually wasn’t too bad with friends on the bus, MP3 players, and movies that they showed (The Necessities of Life and Bon Cop Bad Cop). Crossing the border was very exciting, mainly because I got a new stamp in my passport. Score!

We arrived in Ottawa at around 5 pm and immediately checked into Les Suites Hotel. We were divided into groups of four and I shared a room with Yuna (my roommate), Amparo (from Belgium), and Rachel (from England). The room was amazing. We had a kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a quite huge living room. Since we didn’t want to waste any time, we took showers immediately and got ready for going out for dinner. After dinner we experienced Ottawa nightlife, which was fantastic. Score again! 

The next day, we left quite early to go to the Museum of Civilization. (That whole day was actually packed with museums and stuff which I was kind of forced to do.) After some coffee I was finally awake and could enjoy the gorgeous view from the museum. The next stop was the American Embassy which was simply boring. I’ve been to the American Embassy in Vienna and I’ve been to other embassies before so those were two hours that I could have done something more fun. Next we headed to the Parliament (after a short “lunch” break which really wasn’t a lunch break) where we had a tour. The Parliament was beautiful and despite the over-enthusiastic tour guide, I really liked it. At around 3 pm, we finally arrived at our last stop of the day (that many museums in one day are exhausting): the National Gallery. After the National Gallery we were finally allowed to do whatever - which we did.

In the Museum of Civilization

Parliament

In front of the National Gallery

Since nobody had really eaten anything all day, our mission was to find food, preferably the Ottawa specialty “poutine”. Poutine is a dish that consists of fries, gravy, and cheese. It sounds and looks disgusting but it is actually delicious! Luckily we found a place right next to our hotel. Score!

Poutine

That delish dish made us all quite tired so we took a nap before checking out Ottawa nightlife on a Friday. It rocked again and on the way out it actually started snowing. Which made me really happy.

On Saturday, we had to check out by 10.30 am so after packing my few belongings I headed out with a couple of friends to find some brunch. Which we did and I have to admit that I had poutine again. Horrible, I know, and so unhealthy, but sooo delish. Since I’m back in Orono, I’ve been trying to eat extra healthy, though. The bus ride home felt quite long but after two nights out it could have been far worse. Fortunately, we didn’t have any problems reentering the US and at around 9 pm we arrived back home.

So what’s my impression of Canada? I loved it. It was very interesting to see the difference between American and Canadian culture, especially since Canada is so much more influenced by European culture (which I really appreciated).

Will I go back? Definitely. Hopefully I will be able to go on a trip, which is organized by the university, to Québec in February! Canada beware: Heute ist nicht alle Tage; ich komm wieder, keine Frage!

More pictures are on my picasa website: http://picasaweb.google.com/yvonne.kaisinger