Ottawa: Winterlude

So one of the biggest events during the winter in Ottawa and Gatineau areas is Winterlude, an annual three-week festival that 'celebrates winter'. It's probably one of the biggest 'tourist' events in Ottawa, attracting quite a lot of people every year. It was first created in 1979 I believe, and the biggest attraction would have to be the Rideau Canal which during this time of year, is the world's largest skating rink. No lie.

In the three years I have lived here in Ottawa, this is probably the only thing I look forward to during the winter, besides my birthday of course. This year's Winterlude took place on Jan. 30 and ran until Feb. 16 and naturally, I tried to see and do as much as I could.

Now, I went on the Rideau Canal my first year for the Paint the Canal Red (a Carleton University event), and god, I really need to learn how to skate. Yes, in the three years I've been here, I still don't know how to balance my sorry butt on a pair of skates. What did I do when I went on my first year? I walked on the side, where the snow was, got off on the next stop and hopped on the bus and met up with my friends at Rideau Centre. Sad, I know. Maybe next year. Or never. We'll see.

The first place I went to was Snowflake Kingdom over at Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau. I'd gone with a handful of other international students from Carleton University, and man, it was an experience. I believe it was -30 when we out that day, so I was pretty darn cold. But it made for a great adventure. Not only did we get lost on the way there (like, I'm not kidding - we ended up having to walk on the bridge connecting Ottawa and Gatineau to make sure we ended up in the right place), but we were dealing with the freezing cold. Can you imagine that - eight international students who are from tropical places, playing around in -30C weather. My fingers and toes were so cold! Our hot chocolates weren't enough to warm us up the minute we got to Snowflake Kingdom.

But it was a blast. Granted, one of the reasons I had gone was to write a story about it for one of my journalism classes, but I really did have a great time. I finally tried maple taffy, carved my name in ice and met a whole bunch of cool people. There was so much to do that we were actually quite overwhelmed. There were a whole bunch of super slides to try, a maze, and all sorts of entertainment!  Decisions, decisions, decisions. So despite the cold and the fact I had to write a story about it that same night, it was a great memory.

Funny story here - I had never really had to deal with having to go out in such weather. I'd normally just snuggle up under the covers with tea and a good book. So I was not prepared for the minute both my phones shut down once we got to Snowflake Kingdom. BECAUSE OF THE DARN COLD. Thankfully I didn't have to use them, but it was a pain warming them up and trying to get them to start. So you know, be prepared for that. Cause I certainly was not. 

Maple taffy goodness! If you don't know what this whole thing is, basically they pour hot maple on to the snow (clean, I have been assured) and they roll it up in sticks and you get this amazing sweet treat. And I'm not kidding on how sweet these things are - this is pretty much your whole sugar intake for the month! Each one cost $3, which may seem a bit pricey, but god, it takes a while to eat cause it's so sticky and sweet. Make sure to drink some water after!

One of the other main attractions is Confederation Park, where every year, they've got the Crystal Garden - essentially, a whole bunch of ice sculptures in one place. And the people who make them are crazy talented! 

They also hold a whole bunch of other events here, what with the huge concert stage set up and all that. I remember how in 2013 they had a K-pop night, and my roommates and I went out and danced to lyrics I didn't understand but was pretty familiar with. So, so fun! They didn't have artists or live performances per se (they really just had DJ), but it was so great meeting and dancing with so many other people who like K-pop. Not to say I'm a big fan of the genre, but I do appreciate a good dance beat now and then. 

Maple taffy again!!!

A few of the ice sculptures on exhibit were actually carved out by international artists, such as this one by Julio Martinez, an artist from Mexico. 

The Rideau Canal with skaters!!! One of these days, I will be there. I promise.

So if you're ever in the Ottawa or Gatineau areas during the late January-early February winter, you have definitely got to check out Winterlude. There is no admission to (most of) the main attractions, so you've got a fun, free pass at experiencing what the winter time is like here. Just make sure to bundle up, mentally prepare yourself and keep your electronics warm or else they'll shut off like mine did while I was over at Snowflake Kingdom. I wasn't kidding about the cold. At all. 

Not kidding about carving my name too, by the way, on a big block of snow at Snowflake Kingdom. Haha!

Happy discovering!

Rediscovering My Love: Old Tunes

Hey guys! So here's just a quick post to yet again fill the blogging void that's been going on here. Again, apologies for being so MIA. 

Anyway, I was going through my drawers a few days ago in an attempt to clean my room up a bit and what did I find? My old iPod Nano (6th generation, I believe) that housed all my songs from like, 6 or so years ago. Yep, that long ago. Curiousity got the best of me, and well, I ended up listening to it all night and got almost nothing done. 

If you're confused as to why I have been cherishing this iPod so much, well, the laptop that this iPod was connected to crashed and I basically lost all the music files. So all that's left is this iPod, and I couldn't be bothered to download them all over again. And besides, Limewire ceased to exist by that time (hah! Remember the good ol' Limewire days?) so there really was no point. That really bummd me out. No lie. Since then I've learned my lesson of backing up all my files onto an external hard drive and refusing to give up my little baby. 

There's nothing better than taking a little trip down memory lane by listening to the tunes I loved from my pre-teen days up until I turned 14 (I think that was when the whole laptop crashing fiasco happened). Oh, I can totally remember rocking out and singing at the top of my lungs in my room, pretending I was a famous singer. My gosh. And to think I still do that now, just you know, a little quieter since I've got roommates and all that. 

I just wanted to share a few of the songs I've been listening to that I seriously do not have on my current iPod (well, iPhone really, but what the heck). I'll be honest, some tunes I did end up re-downloading. So think of this as a little nostalgic, sentimental playlist of mine from my 14-year-old self, if you will:

- When You Look Me In the Eyes by The Jonas Brothers (oh my, I swear, this is still one of my favourite love songs of all time. True blue JoBros fan right here, and always will be)

- Apologize by OneRepublic ft. Timbaland

- Memory by Sugarcult

- With Me by Sum 41

- Rainy Day by Janel Parrish (before she became crazy Mona from Pretty Little Liars, haha!)

- Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae

fun fact - this apparently is my top, most played song on this iPod!

- When It Rains by Paramore

- Shake It by Metro Station
- Happy Birthday by The Click Five (admittedly I listened to this on my birthday a few days ago!)
- Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne
- You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift (naturally, the anthem of every single girl out there when this came out!!)
- Feels Like Tonight by Chris Daughtry
- Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback

- The whole Camp Rock Soundtrack (the first movie of course, where we first met Demi Lovato. My gosh, I loved this movie back then, and now I need to watch it again!)

- Get Back by Demi Lovato (let's be honest, anything from her first album Don't Forget is awesome)

- Why Not, Metamorphosis and So Yesterday by Hilary Duff 

- Rainbow by South Border (perhaps, in my opinion, the best Filipino band there ever was. Uber bummed they disbanded though, they were pretty kickass)

- anything by The Beatles (no joke, they are amazing!)

And my two, hands down, favourites right now: 

Let Me Fall by Alexz Johnson and...

 Pick Up the Pieces, also by Alexz Johnson!

Haha! Do you recognize any of these songs - well, I'm sure you've heard most of them. What are your favourite tunes from the last 10 years or so?

Happy discovering!

Ottawa Uni Life: The Uni Life Update #3

Greetings!!! Oh my, I seriously cannot believe it is already February. And that summer is so close!!! Haha, I swear, all this snow and freeeeezzzinnngg cold is getting to me, and I don't know how I can survive four or so more supposed weeks of winter. GIVE ME THE HEAT!!!

Anywho, sincere apologies for being MIA here on the blog, but the last three weeks have seriously been a pain for me. My journalism has been giving my butt a good kicking these days. Deadlines, midterms and my apprenticeship had me swamped, and honest to God, I don't know how I managed to meet every single one of my deadlines without having a nervous break down. But thank the heavens that it is now reading week and I can breathe. A little that is. I still have so much to catch up on - especially with this blog!

Check it out! If you don't remember from my last uni life update, I mentioned how this semester has me trying my hand out at radio journalism! And man, it's thrown me in a bit of a loop. Going from TV reporting to radio has me definitely missing being behind the camera. But that's not to say I don't get to have fun. It's pretty cool being able to record all sorts of sound, especially if you're doing phone interviews in the booths. That's probably my favourite part. Editing is still a pain, but hey, that's what you got to do to have great sound qualities no? So much respect for those who do this for a living.

If I'll be going down this route in the future, we'll have to see...

And because I have been venturing out around Ottawa chasing down stories for my radio class, you can definitely expect to see a few posts here on all the places I've gone to! Be sure to check back here if you're interested!

This month also had me going on my week long apprenticeship (or internship, whatever you want to call it) over at MUSE Magazine, the Canadian Museum Association's bi-monthly publication. For any student looking to go to Carleton for journalism, well, heads up - you need to do at least a week's worth of interning to graduate. Yep. Not sure if they've told you that already, but you do.

Damn, that was quite the experience - and in a good way. It totally threw me off how slower the pace was there since I didn't need to have story after story ready to go with a deadline in three hours. No joke. I could take my time in researching and finding the motivation to write a pretty cool piece on the arts and culture field. That was pretty neat. I could write at my own pace and not stress out massively (though let's be real, I had so many things going on at the same time school-wise with midterms coming up that I was indeed, stressing out internally).

 Now, probably the biggest highlight of February for me? MY BIRTHDAY!!! Woop woop! Yes, I am another year older, but not necessarily wiser. Granted, I was pretty bummed I had to celebrate yet again another birthday without my family, but nonetheless, it was pretty great. After all, I did get pretty excited when I saw my birthday mail - as in, physical mail and not messages over Facebook or email. Gosh, birthdays are the best! I'm still quite in denial about being a year older, but hey, it's all good.

Just as an aside, if you're part of the Sephora Beauty Insider program - how awesome is their birthday set this year?!?! Two minis of their lip crayons??? THE BEST!

 I totally needed to put this in - my birthday ice cream courtesy of my dear roommate. She had actually placed a whole bunch of orange post-its on my door the morning of my birthday that had me literally laughing out loud. I have such sweet and thoughtful friends haha!

And oh yes, Valentine's day. Yeah well, when you're single and not even the least bit interested given the crazy schedule you've got, it was just a normal Saturday for me. So while couples were enjoying their dates and all that jazz, I stayed home with my chocolates and a Mean Girls-Clueless back to back feature. Where are my fellow single ladies? HAHA! I'm in no way complaining too by the way. I love the single life <3

How've you been for the last two months?

Arianna x