The Canadian Hottie

It is summer here in calgary so it can be really warm sometimes.
(though not as warm as the in the Philippines, and not as humid...)
When temperature reaches 28celsius you can expect to see a lot of meat outside.
Particularly white meat, coz they LOVE to bathe in the sun.

We don't have beaches here, so people sunbathe wherever.
You'll see half-naked people everywhere. Even downtown!
I remember seeing 2 blondes walking down the street in bikini tops and pek-pek shorts.

But it is not always a pretty sight.
One time, our neighor, an old lady, was watering her plants in a t-shirt and a bikini bottom.
Susmaryosep.

ANYWAY, come to think of it, it has never been a pretty sight for me.
(I did not consider the bikini blondes sight mainly because i'm a girl.)

Until this one:

He is cute. He is lean. He has nice abs...


And he reads! Awww...

(no. i did not talk to him. i just sat across him and stalker-ishly took his picture. sorry girls. i don't know his name, nor will i recognize him next time i see him with his shirt on.)

The C-Train

i don't know why, but my sister and i always enjoyed riding trains. in the philippines, we rode the new mrt from quiapo to cubao and then the old mrt from cubao to ayala, just for fun. and we even planned to ride the really old north rail transit from tutuban to... ummm... wherever it leads.

but then, we're in canada now. (plus the fact that i'm not really sure if the north rail transit actually operates for real live passengers) so our new dream is to ride it's transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway.

some say that it's expensive. i visited it's site and i think they're mainly for freight now. so since we can't do that in the near future, we decided to ride the C-Train instead.

the C-train is the local LRT here in calgary. it's the train i ride everyday to work. anyway, since we've only rode it from our place to downtown, we decided to ride it from end to end: somerset to dalhousie, city center to mcknight.

the ride to dalhousie took about 1 hour and 21 stops. we got off and walked a little bit. mejo nahilo ako dun eh. we were supposed to wait for another train, para maiba naman, but the train we rode took so much time to leave, so dun nalang din kami sumakay, we just got in another car.

anyway, for the trip to mcknight, we had to transfer to another train. kaso, halfway along, we felt tired na. faye was hungry, i was dizzy and i needed to pee. so we decided to head back. next time nalang.

total: we rode the train for about 2 hours and went through 53 stops. nakakapagod din pala.

however, tiring it may be, the sites we saw were amazing! we took as much pictures as we could, but no amount of pictures can give justice to all the places and things that we've seen.

tracks of the canadian pacific railway

the mall where i work
i just walk from the train station, towards that mall

39th ave. station

erlton stampede station

on cemetery tunnel
creepy coz yung taas ng tunnel is an actual cemetery

downtown

view from the dalhousie station

the calgary tower

notice the mountains
sayang, snowcapped dapat sila eh. it must be the lighting, or cloudy lang siguro.

Not Destined for Stampede Yet

on thursday, July 10, it was my day off so i decided to go to the stampede park. it'll be over on monday and i won't have any more day off till then. so that will probably be my only time to go to the ever-famous stampede.

but then it was cloudy all day.
and it rained.
nevertheless, i met up with my sister in DQ (where she worked) as planned.

before leaving the house, i was seriously contemplating about whether or not to bring the cowboy hats. this almost made me late for the bus.
so i was hurrying to get to the stop on time, then i realized i forgot to bring the camera. (but i did bring my cellphone and it has a camera so i thought: ayos lang no need to go back for it...)

anyway, the driver forgot my stop so i got off a little farther than i was supposed to. it was there when i realized i might be having a bad day..
but i shrugged it off so i would not further attract any negativities. (as i have learned by watching "the secret")

so i finally met my sister, we rode the train and headed to the stampede.
by the way, rain has started to pour. and we were really hungry.
so the thought of going to the mall instead, has occurred to us.

but i wansn't losing hope. this might be the only chance i have to go this year.
so when we got to the erlton stampede, we got out.
we were standing on the entrance, it was raining, we were so cold...
and paying $13 for something we wouldn't enjoy anyway didn't sound good to me at all.
so we turned back and headed to the nearest mall.

my parents were lucky enough to go to the stampede, on a sunny day, free of charge.
here are some of their pictures to show you what it's like:

there are rides, which of course, they didn't try.

my folks in cowboy hats

a rodeo show

ps: i asked one of my co-workers why the horses and bulls on rodeos go berserk. and she said that: "their testicles are tied, plus they have someone riding their back. so basically it's just an animal having a bad day."

Close encounter with a shoplifter

so i was working at the till (aka cash register. i only discovered that after 2 weeks of working here in canada...) and this tall gangsta' looking guy comes up and asks how much these (he was holding a pair of black airwalk dots) shoes are. i did a price lookup in the register/till and told him it was $49.99. he asked me if they were on sale and i said no. then his wife, who was beside him, gave him the 'no-it's-too-expensive-we're-not-getting-that' kind of look (apparently she wears the pants in the relationship) and handed me a dora-the-explorer flip-flops (presumably for their kid) i rung it in, and told her that it was $12.99. and then she goes: "but there's a sale tag on it for $3.00". the sale tag was kinda loose so i kinda was doubting it. but then again, tagging has been a mess lately so what the heck, i decided to change the price.and then i asked if that was all they were buying. she said yes while giving her husband an annoyed look.

so she paid for it with a credit card, i had her sign the receipt, put the dora flipflops in a bag, put her copy with it and put the store copy in the drawer.

when i looked up. the husband was 10 feet away from the store holding the airwalks.
i was stunned and confused. is he taking those shoes away?
he looked back at me and we stared at each other for like 2 seconds and he walked away.

he was already gone when i realized what actually happened.
i didn't even considered running after him. (well he was 2x my size so i guess deep down inside i knew that running after him by myself wouldn't do me any good.)

but, anyways, i did tell the manager what happened. and he didn't suggest that we run after him either. (though i think we should have. the manager was a tall guy and he could probably take that moth@$f#$k@r down.)

i couldn't believe what happened. minutes after, i still feel so bad. maybe i should've said something instead of staring at him. or maybe i should've chased him (but keeping a good distance...) but the manager told me not to worry much about it.

hope kharma will get to that a#@h$#e

Calgary Stampede Parade

it's time to get all westerned up! calgary stampede is here!
unlike the "ultra stampede", nobody dies in this one.
and it's actually a happy occasion!
they call it the greatest outdoor show on earth.
with the rodeo, carnivals, concerts etc.

so on the start of the stampede: july 4th,
there's a parade downtown.
it's a good thing it was my scheduled off day.
si faye naman, nag-absent talaga.

so we took a train, and dun palang, dami ng tao.
they were all in their cowboy hats and western attire.
i know, we might consider it baduy,
but they all look so happy getting "westerned up" na parang nakakahawa ang energy nila. gusto ko na tuloy mag cowboy boots.

syempre we saw a number of marching bands:


cute vintage cars and weird vehicles:


first nations people (what we know as native indians like pocahontas):


and of course: lots of horses and cowboys:


because there's a lot of horses participating in the parade, we can't avoid the presence of horse poop in the streets.
in fact, isa sa mga inaabangan namin ay kung sino sa mga marching band ang mamalasin na makaapak ng tae.
kasi diba, their in a line so parang ang hirap umiwas. plus, if they're playing an instrument, mas mahirap mag pay attention sa nilalakaran.
but in fairness, onti lang sa kanila ang minalas.
hmmm... mukang alert ang karamihan sa kanila.

here's the sweepers cleaning up the poop

but ang pinakanabilib ako is with the army as seen in this video:

ang galing no?

anyway, the parade lasted for almost 4 hours.
well, di naman sila as in sunod sunod like the parades in the philippines.
may mga interval between entries and floats so you appreciate each of them.

and it wasn't that crowded.
not like in manila na nararamdaman mo na yung hininga ng nasa likod mo sa sobrang siksikan. here, everyone maintains a reasonable distance. plus it wasn't that warm, kaya presko parin. walang bumaho sa crowd. ehehehe...

Filipino Store

maraming pinoy dito sa calgary. AS IN.
everywhere you go, may pinoy.
di pa ko nakakasakay ng bus na wala akong nakakasabay na pinoy.
and sa foodcourt, sa department store, sa grocery...
well, nagkalat tayo.

and as expected, meron din ditong filipino store.
actually, dalawa pa nga eh, one sa south and another sa north.
yung pinuntahan namin is sa south, mas malapit eh.

anyway, you have everything filipino there:
knorr chicken sopas,
lucky me pancit canton,
mang tomas,
bagoong balayan,
sunsilk,
eskinol,
curly tops,
flat tops,
chocolate mallows,
chocnut,
chippy,
clover chips,
turones, etc...
oh! and goldilocks cakes and mamon!

and may mga posters and ad na everything pinoy.
it's like a pinoy headquarters.
they have ads for homes for sale and for rent na filipino yung landlord.
tas may mga job ads din.
may mga announcement ng pinoy radio and tv. (yes merong pinoy radio station pero weekends lang.)
and mga concerts ni basil valdez, zsa zsa padilla, gary v... atbp.

eto sample: parokya in calgary

at saka pala pwede ka rin magpadala ng package to the philippines.
pati narin pera.
ehehehe....

so mejo natuwa talaga kami sa place na yun.
we bought mang tomas, sangkatutak na lucky-me instant noodles, chippy at v-cut.
at si mommy, di pinalagpas ang eskinol.

right:Philippines, left: Calgary