MERRY CHRISTMAS!

VanDusen Festival of Lights

Hi all,

Isn’t that a wonderful sight to see! MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! If it’s already been then I hope you had lots to drink to make room in the fridge for food then ate heaps to make room for the alcohol for today!

In the last week I have been to a few festive activities. Last week I went to the Christmas Market downtown. The market is full of many stalls, including food, gifts and activities.

Vancouver Christmas Market

The theme is very German with some great beer (Krombacher) and lots of different German foods. Overall it was a pretty cool little market.

On Sunday I went to Capilano Suspension Bridge which was pretty cool. They had placed lights through the whole park and they looked pretty amazing. Unfortunately I made the mistake of taking some crap photos as I was a little impatient with my phone. But I really enjoyed the place, can only imagine what it would be like in daytime walking on the suspension bridge that high above the river!

Lights at the Capilano Suspension Bridge park.

On Tuesday I went downtown to Canada Place, a big events centre, to look at the Christmas trees that had been decorated by different sponsors. There was about 7 different trees and they all looked pretty cool. My favourite was probably this construction one with a crane as the tree topper. They were all pretty cool though.

Christmas at Canada Place

Lastly, on Christmas Eve I went with my homestay to VanDusen Botanical Gardens to look at the Festival of Lights. Was pretty awesome to see the place lit up, with it absolutely packed with people walking around. One of the coolest parts was the dancing lights show, with the lights changing in time with music. If you haven’t seen it on my facebook, hopefully the link will work. In general the lights were a little over the top, but when there was lots of open space they looked awesome!

VanDusen Gardens light festival

Anyway that’s all for now, hope everyone has had a good Christmas and has a safe New Years!

Josh

Winter is here!

Hi all,

It’s been over a month since I posted something on here so I guess it’s time for an update. The last month has been long and cold but also pretty fun. Winter is really on it’s way, I don’t remember a day that it has got over 10 for ages. Last week was incredibly cold some days, with fields frozen until close to lunch and the streets looking like this early in the morning.

Frozen!

 

In terms of football, the team had two games against Japan, one in Edmonton and one in Vancouver. They lost the game in Edmonton 3-0 but came back to lose 3-2 in Vancouver, conceding in the final minute of the game. They looked even, if not better, than Japan in that second game so it’s looking good for next year.

Celebrating one of Sophie’s goals

 

My PhD is slowly progressing, with feedback received from both of my supervisors on my first literature review. The feedback wasn’t too bad and mostly surrounded issues with the flow and some content within the review. Other than that they were happy with it, which is a big relief. A bit of work to fix up some sections then send it off to my last supervisor to read. Finally getting on to designing the studies and what I will look at. Should be a fun once I get started on those.

Outside of study and football, I went to my first Ice Hockey game, the Vancouver Canucks vs the Colorado Avalanche. The game ended up in a loss for the Canucks sadly, but it was a cool experience. The game has a real show associated with it. The pre-game announcements and the start of each period having some cool light spectacles and night club type music! haha. Thanks to the family I’m staying with who got some free tickets and took me a long.

Seats were not too bad!

 

The team jetted off to LA today for 10 days, so I get a bit of time to myself. Hopefully get my review sorted out and get out of the house a little. When they get back it’s just two more weeks then it’s there 3 week Christmas break, which I’m excited for!

Till next time,

Josh