onwardstoadventure 
We spent the Family Day long weekend in February meeting up with a bunch of other Australian exchange teachers from all over Canada. We stayed in Canmore together and it was great to catch up over a meal and hear some familiar accents and see how they have all been setting in.
The Rocky Mountains are breathtaking! We were in awe of how immense and magical they were, a vision which cannot be captured in a photo, no matter how hard I tried!
We were lucky to meet up with the Canadian teachers and their kids who inspired us to apply for this teacher exchange experience. They were also visiting Banff that weekend with a Kadina Memorial School teacher! It was the best feeling to see some familiar faces and to have some Canadians to take us around to some awesome touristy spots!
Tubing at Norquay was the first activity of the weekend! The nerves were building as the escalator slowly made its way to the top of the hill, but once the first descent was made the adrenalin kicked in and we couldn’t wait for our next turn!
The descents on the tubes could be made singular, in pairs or in small groups. Imogen wasn’t quite tall enough for the tubing but there was plenty for her to do with a small playground area that included a motorized tube merry go round!
After our adrenaline pumped tubing experience our next stop was a relaxing soak at the Upper Banff Hot Springs. This experience takes first place for all 3 kids favourite thing they did over the long weekend in Banff! The hot springs sit at a temperature of between 37 and 40 degrees. The evening we went it was -15 so it was entertaining to see everyone’s hair and eyelashes becoming icy and frosted!
Lake Louise has been on our top 10 Canada bucket list things to do! And it did not disappoint! It was a winter wonderland with snow frosted mountains and trees on glittering white ground and an impressive collection of ice sculptures. Being winter the lake was frozen and open for ice skating! Imogen had her first ice skating experience here which I hope will become one of her first memories she can recall. Luke and I drew on our child of the 90’s roller skating/blading experience and managed to impress the kids with our ice-skating skills! The kids picked it up fairly quickly and were managing to do laps staying upright in no time!
We couldn’t leave without exploring the town centre of Banff. It is a gorgeous town that looks like it is from the set of a Christmas movie! While wandering the streets we found a store that sold beavertails, a must try Canadian dessert treat!
Here are some links for anyone interested in checking out more:
Upper Banff Hot Springs: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/voyage-travel/promotion/sources-springs/banff
Norquay tubing: https://banffnorquay.com/winter-2/tubing/
Banff National Parks pass: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/banff/visit/pass
Thanks for Checking in!
Elyse
Valentines is big here in Canada! It is festive and it is a day that celebrates love in all its forms, from romantic love to love for friends and family.
Valentine’s Day does exist in Australia but in my experience it is mainly romantic love that is celebrated and it is not a hugely recognised day. Whereas here in Canada the kids all celebrated the day at school with class parties and card exchanges with their classmates. From this we found that the day was a day to express our love and gratitude for all the relationships in our life.
It just happened that Valentines Day landed on the same week as Tim Tam Day so after finding some in the local shops (woo!) Luke and the kids took them to school to share with students, teachers and classmates.
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
Edmonton, along with a lot of Alberta, has had a cold snap! After enduring a week-long deep freeze (the longest since the 90’s!) which looks to go for 12 days we were craving some outdoor time! The Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton made for the perfect place! This botanical garden consists of four glass pyramids, each with a different biome. Tropical, Arid, Temperate and a feature pyramid which changes to a new themed biome every couple of months.
Each of the three permanent pyramids evoked memories of different places in Australia. The temperate pyramid reminded us of the Lower South East and Victoria, the arid pyramid reminded us of the Yorke Peninsula (home) and the tropical pyramid reminded us of Queensland.
At the time of our visit the feature pyramid was themed ‘Tranquil Gardens’. The second you entered this pyramid you were overcome with the most delicious smell and the water features and relaxing music created an atmosphere that lived up to its name.
While in the temperate pyramid we overheard local kids refer to it as “the Edmonton pyramid” so we got a glimpse of what we can expect to see once the blanket of white melts away come spring.
The Arid pyramid with its succulents and hardy, drought tolerant plants reminded us a lot of home on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia.
The Tropical pyramid was so warm and lush and green.
Here is a link for the Muttart Conservatory for anyone interested in finding out more! https://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_events/muttart-conservatory.aspx
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
We bundled up and braved the -20 temperatures for this festival and it was so worth it! The Flying Canoe Volant festival celebrates French-Canadian, First Nations and Métis cultures. This festival had all the makings of a great winter festival; more ice slides to play on, snow and ice sculptures to discover and maple taffy.
There were plenty of indoor activities to do while you warm up with a hot chocolate such as musicians and performers to watch and a dedicated craft zone for the kids.
The light walk along the ravine which had been advertised was what hooked us in to wanting to go explore this festival but an hour in we were yet to work out where to find it. Just as we were about to head back to the car, deciding that perhaps we needed to drive to get there, a group of people were pushing a giant canoe full of kids asked if the girls wanted to hop in and go for a ride! On exchange there is a mantra going around the exchange teachers of saying yes to every experience so of course we said yes and so the girls jump in and the rest of us join in running this giant canoe down the street.
When the canoe arrived at the end of the street we were so glad we joined in as it took us directly to the light walk by the ravine! The light walk was magical! Illuminated with fairy lights and light sculptures and occupied with wandering performers.
There were reconciliation teepees with stories and tea, tents with dancing and music and fire pits where we learnt how to cook bannock (which was like damper on a stick).
But my favourite thing was just to walk around and look at all the fairy lights and light sculptured everywhere, they really create that magical winter wonderland atmosphere!
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
All five of us had never seen snow before! We arrived at night and it was snowing! The ground was covered in snow and it glitters! I never realised that snow would glitter!
It has been pretty much snowing every couple of days since we have been here so there has been no shortage of snow play for us to have!
We have made a snowman, snow balls, an igloo and snow angels. Which can’t be created on the same day as there are different types snow, or more weather, I guess. If it’s really cold it’s perfect snow angel weather as it’s icy and loose and if it’s not as cold then it is better for making snowmen and snowballs as it is melty and easier to mould together.
Isabella has got the snow angel rhythm down but it was hilarious watching Imogen’s first attempt as she bicycled her legs around and couldn’t work out why she wasn’t creating the angel pattern in the snow. She has had plenty of practice getting the rhythm down now though, both inside and out, and is a pro snow angel maker now.
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
We have managed to adapt fairly seamlessly in to Canadian life. We’re not sure if we are still in the honeymoon period, but now that the kids are at school our daily routine isn’t super different… apart from allowing an extra half an hour (kids!) to put all our snow gear on before heading out!
We have been truly lucky to have such amazing exchange partners to exchange lives with and are so grateful to have their support and to share this extraordinary experience with them. We were lucky to spend a few days with our exchange partners in Canada before they headed off and would recommend this to anyone embarking on exchange if you can fit it in your schedules. The kids were sad to see them go but as Imogen keeps saying they need to go to our house so they can see the beach as they let us come to their house so we can see the snow!
Although the province of Alberta that we are in is English speaking there are still so many different words in Canada to those we have in Australia. Imogen, I think, is beginning to think we are just making up silly words as she goes around saying things like “In Canada a chair is called…” and she will just make up some random gibberish word!
Here is a list of words we have encountered are different!
Australia – Canada
Beanie – Tuque
Toilet – Washroom
Powerpoint – Socket
A4 paper – 8.5” x 11”
Bin – Garbage can
Rubbish – Garbage
Tray – Bin
Corridor – Hall
Lunchbox – Lunchkit
Mobile – Cell
Sweet potato – Yam
Soft-drink – Pop/soda
Ute – Truck
Excursion – Field trip
Lolly – Candy
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
Edmonton is a city that embraces the cold weather! Nearly every weekend since we have been here there has been an outdoor winter festival to check out. And these festivals have been magical! Filled with fairy lights, ice sculptures, snow sculptures, ice slides and maple syrup taffy.
The Deep Freeze festival was a lively festival that celebrated Ukrainian, Francophone and Indigenous cultures. Highlights of this festival that we stumbled across were two ice slides for the kids, maple taffy and a Scandinavian Viking encampment.
The people and volunteers are the heart of these festivals and put so much energy and effort in to making the festivals great. The group Odin’s Ravens put on a re-enactment street performance of Viking battles which was so entertaining to watch.
This festival brought us our first taste of maple syrup taffy. The maple syrup taffy has been a favourite of the kids (of course, it’s frozen sugar, why wouldn’t it?). The taffy making is an experience that you are involved in which makes it so much fun. The maple is heated up and poured directly on to snow in front of you and you are given a stick to twirl it on to as the snow cools it down. And it is sweet, frozen DELICIOUSNESS!
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
After we found out we would be exchanging to Edmonton I hopped on google and the Edmonton Ice Castles were the first thing that came up! They looked amazing (especially to someone who had never seen snow) so of course they were the first thing added to our Edmonton bucket list!
Imogen dressed herself from head to toe in her ‘Frozen’ clothes for the visit, although you couldn’t tell once she was all bundled up for the cold! The ice castles had grand archways of ice, intricate ice sculptures and a few ice slides that even the big kids could have a go on!
We were lucky to have a mild day in January to explore the ice castle and so special guest princesses were there to visit which made the visit even more magical for the girls!
Here is the link for the Edmonton Ice Castles if anyone is interested: https://icecastles.com/edmonton/
Thanks for checking in! Elyse
(PS: Today we saw deer and a squirrel! Woo!)
Greetings Adventurers!
Thank you for taking the time to embark with us on our adventures!
Last year we were lucky enough to be offered a place on the Canada / Australia Teaching exchange program for 2019. We felt our children were at the right age to begin experiencing a new country ( and none of us had even left Australia before).
For those of you thinking about an Exchange yourself the links below should be helpful:
So what a better way to test yourself but exchange lives for an entire year.
We are going to be documenting our adventures throughout the year. We will be taking in stride the ups and downs that come with the change of lifestyle and are looking forward to seeing and experiencing some life changing events. We hope that you follow us on the adventure and comment, we would love to reply!
Cheers,
Luke
An exchange is not a year in your life, but a life in a year.
onwardstoadventure 
Recent Comments