Winter Extravaganza

For Reading Week I joined the Outdoor Club, actually Yuval and Dan, for a trip to Silent Lake Provincial Park. We stayed there for 4 days (3 nights), being taught all the secrets of winter camping. This included sleeping in a yurt, quinzee (kind of like an igloo, but less room inside), and for some in a wall tent. The trip also featured soap stone carving, snow shoeing, wilderness first aid, navigation, and - last and maybe even the best - dog sledding. The survival skills I've learned even include lighting a fire in the cold and chopping wood ;-) We had a great trip with a nice group and perfectly prepared leaders. As usual, I've got a lot of photos (>200) and I've selected some for you to view in my photo album.

Snow Day!

It sounds incredible, but today McMaster University is completely closed due to the amount of snow! No exams, no library access, no food courts - because of 30cm snow. This is called a snow day and seems to be quite common, as Canadians do not use snow plows as much as we do, but just use salt to get rid of the snow.

I heard that Austria does not have a lot of snow right now, so I thought you'd like to see some pictures of Hamilton in its white dress - please visit the photo album! We also have temperatures down to -18°C, which turns out to feel like -32°C because of the wind! *brr*