Calgary Stampede

These blog posts aren't in chronological order anymore... oh well. A couple of weekends ago I was invited down to the Calgary Stampede with my friend Nicole. It was an absolutely blast! I won't say much, because its more fun just to look at some of the pictures and read the captions.


Click here for pictures!!
More to come...


But I will fill in some of the gaps of the story, not told by the pictures. I had the sense that the Stampede was a big fair grounds with all sorts of random

eat carnival food, go touch baby farm animals, people watch...

cowboy-like sporting events. This was not exactly the case. You have to buy tickets for the rodeo shows, and these tickets sell out weeks in advance. So I was unable to watch any of the torturing of various pigs and cattle. So in reality, the Calgary Stampede is not much more than a giant carnival. The thing that sets it apart from the giant carnivals in every other city, is how much the city of Calgary gets into it! It's bizarre. The whole town goes crazy for 2 weeks. Everybody wears a cowboy hat and dresses like a cowboy or a stripper-with-a-cowboy-hat. People even dress like this to work. Even at banks! It was funny, I went into an RBC to get some money, and all the staff were dressed like bank robbers. With handkerchiefs over their mouths and everything! But I digress...

So once you are actually on the fair grounds, you can do the following things: ride carnival rides, play carnival games (no thanks...), eat carnival food, go touch baby farm animals, people watch, or go to some of the free shows. I partook in all of the above, except for the dirty carny games. You know the ones where you always lose.

I hadn't had carnival food in sooooo long. It was fantastic. Beef in a bun, corn dogs, cotton candy, ice cold root beer. Once a year, everybody should eat some carny food.

I didn't go on a lot of the roller coasters, 3 perhaps. But we did go one one which took your picture as you drop down the tallest drop. And the picture is FANTASTIC. I can't wait until I scan it into the computer and post it. You'll see...

The free shows at the Stampede are impressive. For example I went to a Nelly Furtado concert for free. She only played for about an hour, but still. She played tunes from 3 or 4 of her albums. We got pretty close to the stage, but I couldn't really see much other than a see of cowboy hats in front of me. I took some shoddy video clips on my cell phone, but Nelly is only 3 white pixels :)

Well that gives you a sense of the Calgary Stampede. I'll post again when I have more pics up!

A Taste of Edmonton

Last night Carla and I (and two of Carla's friends from work) went downtown to get some yummy food at the "A Taste of Edmonton" festival. This is sort the equivalent of the "Folk Fest" held in Victoria each summer. Instead of having stands with various international foods however, they have stands from 40 different restaurants in Edmonton. Each one offers a "savory" dish and a "sweet" dish. Admission is free (unlike the Folk Fest in the past couple of years), and all you have to do is buy some tickets which you trade in for food!

The festival grounds were packed, pretty much shoulder to shoulder in

Ginger beef, Cappucino Chocolate Shooter, Green Onion Cakes...

the main strip. A number of stages were set up with musicians playing various cover tunes (I think one guy was a Johnny Cash impersonator). Carla and I made a bee-line for the stand selling Ginger Beef -- our favourite Americanized asian dish ever. We quickly followed that up with a Cappucino Chocolate Shooter (some sort of giant truffle). Wandering around we cooled off, dipping our feet in the fountain and sat around listening to the second-rate folk music acts (what can I say? I'm a music snob...).

At the Folk Fest in Vic, the most popular item is the Hungarian Langos. Here, however, the longest line is for the Green Onion Cakes from some random chinese place. So we had to line up for those. They were amazing -- much better than you would think. Served with sour cream and super hot sauce.... mmmmmmmm...

Our last dish was a Tropical Gelati from some Italian restaurant. It was cold, but nothing special as far as Gelati goes. We'll be heading back for more food later in the week, because we still have a bunch of tickets left!!

Medicine Cup Charity Tourney

This past weekend was the Stollery Children's Hospital Medicine Cup (Charity) Hockey Tourneyment (more photos here). I graciously donated my skills as a hockey player to help raise money for sick kids. Oh yeah. Girls did this kind of stuff.

I'm pretty good at skating. I just can't turn right. Or skate backwards. Or stop. And my stick handling isn't very good (it didn't help that I played left-handed with a right-handed stick without even realizing it....). Combine this with the fact that I bought myself skates that were one size too small. This way I

I just can't turn right. Or skate backwards... Or stop...

still fit into Junior skates, and save like $150!! Woot!! Needless to say I played on the "Boys Who Can't Skate" team, and we were entered in the girls league. Sadly though (for the girls), we beat every single team. When it came to the semi-finals, we played the 2008 med girls again but ended up tossing the game -- because we were tired and didn't want to play the next day. Oh and because we suck. The score was actually 11-11 and we lost on the fourth shot in the shoot-out.

It was hugely fun though. I'm really looking forward to the next inter-med hockey tourneyment, this April. And the girls had better watch out, because I might even find a left-handed stick I can borrow...

New Years '06

You might think this picture was from New Years 1972, but it was in fact from New Years 2006.

I ended up going to this laid back party/jam-session at a friend's of Mark's. It was good times. Apart from the purple cloud of smoke. I thought it was funny how we lost track of time around midnight, and then suddenly people were yelling for everyone to come upstairs for the countdown. When we got upstairs, somebody asked what time it was. Someone else said "12:03". So everybody just started yelling: "10!!! 9!!!! 8!!!!...". Laid back indeed ;)

X-mas Photography

This is a really cool picture of Carla I took this past December. This is the Corona LRT (Subway) Station in downtown Edmonton. That was a fun night too. Carla and I had decided to walk down to see the Christmas light display they had put up at the Legislature. Only problem was that it was -22 degrees celcius!! After walking through the light display, it was so cold that we decided instead of walking all the way home, we would just go catch the sub. Only problem being neither I nor Carla knew where the closest station was. We ended up walking further and further downtown for about 20 minutes until we came across a subway station. Turns out we had walked past 2 closer stations. Oh well, it made for a good picture. Just before taking this picture I had cleaned a tear off of Carla's glasses. A single tear drop was frozen solid to her lens. Crazy Edmonton.

Here is the best pic from the Christmas light display:

MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

Vic: Should be a close match today, Kenny. We have the "Dedicated Enema Technicians" versus the "Perianal Fistual Fixers".

Kenny: Hehehehe. Peri*anal*.

Vic: Kenny!! Enough! We have Guy LaDouche on scene for an interview.

Guy: Hello. I *ass*ume you will win the Med Monster Mash costume competition. What do you think?!

Contestant 1: I have blood in my stool!!!

Contestant 2: I like dirty girls!!

Guy: You are so turning Guy on!

Captain Tenneal: Leeeeeeet's git it on!

If you haven't seen MXC on Spike TV this won't make much sense to you. This year for the Med Monster Mash dance, me and a bunch of friends got together for a group costume. Although the costume prize went to Chris dressed as Gwen Stefani and a bunch of girls dressed as his/her Harajuku Girls, it was still good times.

MXC: Kenny Blankenship and Guy LaDouche

Here is Nelson (Guy) interviewing me (host Kenny Blankenship). I built my costume using a cardboard box and clothes I borrowed from Laine: flip flops, a kimono, cardboard shoulderpads, a scarf taped to the shoulder pads, and a sash from a taekwondo uniform. Don't get eliminated!!

First day of school: Bar Wild

Here is the cute couple, out dancing after the first day of school this year. That week actually included 3 nights out dancing (one of which was a pub crawl), the golf tournment, free BBQs, free stuff from the banks, and all of the other usual orientation stuff. Good times. Hopefully we showed the first years a fun first week in medicine.

O-week Golf Tourney

The first week of September is known as Orientation Week for the new first year med students. No, not "sexual orientation", but rather orientation to medicine and the campus/city. Had this been an excercise to sort out "sexual orientation" we would have confused some med students with our outfits. Because we were seriously hot! This pic is from the Costume Golf Tournement.

Needless to say we won the costume competition. In fact they just handed us the prize as soon as we showed up. When we heard "costume contest" we thought "crazy crazy costumes" but apparently everybody else thought that meant "wear a funny hat". It was crazy fun though. Not the best golfing attire however: nowhere to hold tees, and the stockings tend to rip easily (as Brian noticed when he totally ripped his the first time he pulled them on).

The best part of the afternoon was actually the car ride over to the golf course. We had to drive along the highway. So just try to imagine 6 french maids (5/6 are male) jammed in a tiny car with only 5 seats. We were also waving/winking and yelling at every trucker we passed. We got some mighty strange looks. And also some winks back. Some people just sped up so they didn't have to look at us any more. Heheheheh. 

Ultimate Frisbee

This year's Ultimate Frisbee season went by really quickly. It was a ton of fun, as usual. I was in a second year med intramural rec team with about 15 friends, and this year we managed to win a couple of games (unlike last year...). We lost the first playoff game 7-3, and worst of all, we lost to the first year med team!! Considering the first year meds have beat us in every single other sport, I suppose its not that bad. They must have changed the medicine admissions criteria this year as to weed out the uncoordinated biochem students like us!

Late Night Dip

This past week Mark and Carla both came to visit me in Vancouver, and wild times ensued. Mark has a talent for making me party harder than I usually would (especially on a work night), and also a talent for making girls swim naked with him. This I cannot explain. What I can explain is what happened in the picture above. Thursday night Mark, Katrina, Carla, and I were up late partying in the games room, playing some pool and attempting to do handstands drunk. After I lost about 9 games of pool in a row, we all walked Katrina to the bus stop (or what Mark referred to from the outset as "an adventure"). By the time we got to the bus loop and checked the schedules, we learned that it was too late and no buses were coming. We turned around and began heading back. Katrina, a UBC graduate, remarked that there were two things that she had never done at UBC: 1) sleep at a frat house, and 2) go swimming in the outdoor pool after hours.

Being as the pool was on our way back we dropped by to scope the place out. It looked nice and warm, with steam pouring off the top of the dark water, but it was friggin' cold out and there was a security truck in the area. After being super sneaky (i.e. running across the parking lot and looking to see if anyone was in the security

...from behind the bushes I heard a splash and girls giggling...

truck), we approached the pool. In the time it took me to urinate in the bushes I heard a splash and girls giggling. When I walked around the bushes to see what had happened I could see Mark swimming in the pool, and Carla and Katrina holding a camera and giggling (needless to say there are other pictures which I refuse to post on this blog, you can thank me later). The rest of us tore off our clothes (or most of our clothes) and hopped the fence to join Mark. After a quick dip and lots of laughing, we scrambled back to land and back over the fence. It was quite the adventure! Katrina did end up forfilling her other sin on her wish list, and ended up crashing on the couch at my place (which just happens to be a frat house). All in all it was an amazingly fun week!! A little sleep deprived, but amazingly fun just the same!

I-House Year End Formal

Here's another pic from the Formal last night. To finish off the story: there was a buffet dinner, speeches, presentations from each floor (my floor re-enacted the prank Monica and I pulled on Sara when we faked her eviction notice), and then a dance. The DJs at the dance sucked really really bad. They had over $15,000 in Numark DJ equiptment yet still couldn't manage to beat match a single track.

After a couple of hours of dancing we moved the party back to I-House,

...shots of Blue Poweraid
and Jack Daniels...

where I DJed in the kitchen for the rest of the night to compensate for the crap music we heard all night. We played drinking card games until about 4 (5am with the time change). One of the guys drinking with us lives down the hall, and I hadn't seen him in the kitchen ALL YEAR. I've only seen the guy about 4 times in the halls. This guy (a Korean named Ram) drinks like crazy. Despite our large array of fine liquors including Malibu, Disarono, flavoured vodkas, and a variety of mixes, the ONLY THING this guy would drink were shots of Blue Poweraid and Jack Daniels!! What the hell?

I-House Year End Formal 2

Last night was the year end formal which was a lot of fun. It included a really good buffet dinner, followed by a ton of speeches about living in an "international community" with "global awareness" and building our "global citizenship". Then the students of I-House were invited up to the microphone to share stories of their "increased global awareness". The stories people told were horrible!! It was soooo funny. The big wigs were all expecting heart warming stories about how living in I-House has changed our lives, but all they got were story after story about "Well it started after campus security dropped us off for being too drunk, and then Jules went and....", or "and then our porn videos from the lounge all went missing", etc.

The representatives looked absolutely horrified and now probably think we are awful people. I on the other hand thought these types of stories actually prove what a success I-House was. Yes there are obvious differences between members of different cultures, but there are many more similarities. We don't spend an ENTIRE YEAR exploring these differences. All exchange students just fit right in and I-House operates just like any other residence on campus. The differences between me and an Egyptian exchange student are much less than the differences between me and many "Canadians". At I-House we all live together, have classes together, eat together, watch the same TV. I don't think we are as different from one another as the founders of I-House had hoped.

FLOOD and FIRE at I-House

There was a fair amount of excitement in the building I live in this weekend. Late Thursday night the fire alarm went off (a common occurrence as we have about 3 drills a semester). I wandered back to my room to lock my door and on the way a girl came running out of the stair well soaked from head to toe. At this point I realized that there might actually be a real fire -- so I hurried up a little bit and told people I saw that this wasn't a drill.

We evacuated the building to the back and rumor was passed around that this wasn't a fire, instead some girl on the 5th floor had hung something on her sprinkler in her room, and had apparently broken off her sprinkler head, triggering the alarm and busting open a 1 inch water main in her ceiling. Ooopsy!

We went back instead when we were convinced it wasn't a fire to check out the damage. Water was literally gushing out from under the perpetrator's door and flowing down the hallway. Girls were screaming at people to go get towels to try to sop up the water (which is pretty funny when you think about it because a towel would do absolutely nothing).

The firemen soon showed up and told us to get the hell out of the building, so I went to a nearby building and played some foosball and piano for about an hour. Finally when we heard the alarms stop we went back inside, only to have the alarms go off again. We were told to vacate once again, and to meet in the meeting room at which point an out of breath fire chief told us "OK everything is now undercontrol guys, we just put out the fire on the 2nd floor"!!!!! Some idiot had left their dinner on the burner on full blast in the kitchen for the last hour.

To summerize there is extensive water damage to about 20 rooms including rooms on every single floor beneath the 5th. There is also smoke damage on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Lucky me I'm on the 6th floor!! This made for an exciting day, but it must be pretty crappy for the people that had to move out (with it being final exam season and all). Especially for those few people that had water damage to ALL of their stuff.

P.S. I feel bad now because as soon as I saw the damage to the 5th floor that night, I ran down to the 4th floor and banged on peoples doors to tell them to move all of their stuff. I asked one girl if she wanted my help moving all of her electronics out of her room. She insisted they would be fine where they were. I insisted back that I totally disagreed with her and that water will soon be pooring from her ceiling. I'm not sure if she ever did move her stuff... Oh well.

Med Show (Saturday)

The final night of performances was amazing. Not only were the skits smoother (with all the extra practice) but also there were lots of extra lines thrown in ad-lib style. Lots of people were yelling from the crowds and usually the actors on stage were able to respond quick and witty. Like the host Ron Burgundy yelling out "Who said that? Was that you, Doorman? You're fired!!! Clear your desk, because you're fired."

After the show there was a staff party at the Armory (dance club), which we totally packed in with upwards of 200 med students. I had an excellent time, dancing the night away. Including having my shirt ripped off and having med girls attack me (I may or may not post pictures of this....). Hehehehe. The Armory has two separate dance floors, with the hiphop/dance music downstairs, and more 80's/90's music upstairs.

I am already looking forward to next year's med show, and have started planning!!

Med Show (Friday)

The second night of Med Show was also a success. Except that it was a really tough crowd this night. I think it might have been the difference in the ticket prices. Thursday night was $5, while Friday was night was $10 advance or $30 at the door. Maybe our show isn't "$10 funny", but its "$5 funny" -- because on Thursday night the crowd was rolling around laughing at ANYTHING, while Friday night some of our jokes got absolutely no response (which is very scary when you are on stage).

After intermission the crowd definitely loosened up (and all the med students got drunk), because the 3rd and 4th years got tons of laughs (and random drunken phrases yelled at them). So it was still a success.

Here are the lyrics to one of the 4th years' songs. I must give a disclaimer to the nursing students that occasionally read my blog: This song is hurtful to nurses/women. The song previous to this one made fun of med students (i.e. killing patients, prescribing wrong drugs, dropping babies, etc.), while this one makes fun of nurses (who apparently give 3rd/4th year meds a really hard time when they're on the wards). Still I think the lyrics are brilliant, please enjoy and remember that I love nurses (especially one in particular).


Nurses' Song

Nurses we are overjoyed
To meet you face to face
You've been getting quite a name
All around the place
Being bitches
Screwing up the meds
Now we understand you're whores
But at least you give good head

So you are a nurse
You're a wonderful nurse
Prove to me that you're the best
Let me look upon your breasts
If that you will do
Then my hats off to you
Come on show me those boobs

Nurses you just won't believe
The shit you've stirred up here
Your incompetence is all
So very fucking clear
Oh telling Doctors
What they ought to try
When in fact your management
Would make our patients die

So you are a nurse You're a competent nurse
Show me all that you were taught
Go fill up my coffeepot
And then go beserk
When I ask you to work
Come on show me those boobs

Nurses like to bitch and moan
They often go on strike
They somehow think their job is more
Than just the village bike
Oh... if you really
Want to get respect
Come right here
And tell me why
The vitals aren't done yet [Yells: It's basically your entire job!!!]

So you are a nurse
Yes a superstar nurse
Prove that you're as good as me
Do this Neurosurgery
Or maybe instead
You should just change the bed
Come on show me those boobs

Med Show (Thursday)

Last night was the first performance of Med Show (a comedy show put on by all the Med students at UofA as a fund raiser for grad). This show consists of a series of short skits, much like Saturday Night Live. The first show was definately a hit. It was absolutely hillarious. I think the first years and the fourth years had the best material, but it was non-stop laughs for over 3 hours. Here's the script from our first skit:


Random Boner Prevention Device

Buddy: (walking towards Main while looking at and touching sweatpants) These Med sweatpants are great! The material is so soft against my skin.

Main: Yeah, they’re sweet but I still don’t feel comfortable wearing sweatpants in public. Aren’t YOU worried about getting an RB?

Buddy: RB?

Main: You know, RB, Random Boners: the one’s that pop out of nowhere. And this soft material isn’t gonna hold anything down. So embarrassing.

Buddy: Oh Yeah, they always happen at the worst times.

(main and buddy do pondering motions)

[lights off us]

[lights on 1^st boner scene on Stage R]

Sister: Hey, grandma’s coming over for supper

Brother: Yay! (gets boner, accompanied by slide whistle)

[lights off]

[lights on 2^nd boner scene on Stage R]

Babysitter Requester: Can you babysit my daughter tonight? She’s five.

Babysitter Boner: I would love to. (gets boner, accompanied by slide whistle)

[lights off]

[lights on 3^rd boner scene on Stage R]

Lifeguard: (blows whistle) Everybody out of the pool!

Pool Boner Guy: (looks down at boner) Oh shit. (hangs head and walks out Stage R) [lights off]

[lights back on Main and Buddy]

Buddy: Oh god! I totally forgot.

[salesman walks in Stage L]

Salesman: Sorry to interrupt but I think I have a solution.

Main: What are you talking about?

Salesman: It’s a Random Boner Management Device. It’s good for RB’s, Random boners AND HGIB’s, Hot Girl Induced Boners.

Main and Buddy: Yeah, HELLO!! (high five eachother)

Buddy: So how does it work?

Salesman: Well, how about I just demonstrate it on one of you guys.

Main: (looks at Buddy and then to Salesman) Sure.

Salesman: First, your penis goes into the penis holder. (sales man puts on penis holder but does not remove hands from Main’s pants). The string that is attached to the penis holder runs up the back, like this (runs string up Main’s back). It then attaches to the cap. (clips string to cap). When you start to have a boner, the string will become taut. This is the signal for you to use you neck muscles to keep your little buddy down.

Main: That makes sense.

Salesman: OK. Let’s test it out. GIRLS! Phase 1.

[2 Hot girls walk on Stage R]

GIRLS: Hello big boy (waves to Main)

Salesman: So, is it working so far?

Main: (head slightly tilted back) Yes, but my neck is getting a little bit sore.

Salesman: Yes, it will do that. Alright. GIRLS! Phase 2.

[First part of song “Satisfaction” turns on]

(2 hot Girls strip)

[Music off]

Salesman: What about now?

Main: (head tilted back a lot) This is great! I don’t think I have a boner! Now no one will stare at me like I’m a freak.

Salesman: Ok, then. Final test. GIRLS! Phase 3.

[Lights off Main, Buddy and Salesman]

[Rest of girls enter stage R, Lights on Girls, Main part of song “Satisfaction” Starts]

(Girls perform choreographed dance routine)

[Girls pull Main into spotlight]

(Girls dance around Main)

[Music simultaneously, GIRLS walk off stage R]

(Main on ground with neck flexed back)

Buddy: Oh my god, I think it broke his neck.

Salesman: Yeah, but no boner (points at mains groin area)

[Scene out]

Reading break at last

This is Carla, Alissa, and myself (with my "pedophile-face") at the back of the UpStairs Cabaret dance club on Bastion Square in Victoria. With my buddy Mark taking the picture. We had an excellent night of dancing at that club, and as usual we got the party started by being the only 3 people on the dancefloor for about half an hour. As the bar slowly filled people gather around to gawk at us and probably make fun of my dancing skillz (or lack thereof), but eventually a couple of pub-crawls arrived and filled the place up. I felt the DJ played an excellent set that was right up my alley (except for the obligatory hip-hop section).

I had an excellent visit home to Victoria for reading break this past week. I spent the entire week laying low -- spending most of my time either with Carla or asleep. It was very nice to finally get an entire week off, instead of rushing home for 2 days and rushing back. It was nice being able to just hang out and relax with Carla, instead of rushing around doing things like we normally do (as my time back home is usually limited).

Ben visits!!

This is my 65 year old brother Ben. He flew over to visit me in Edmonton during the end of his UVic reading break, and we flew back to Vic together on the next Sunday. It was fun to show him around my place and this campus. Its kinda cool because everything is bigger in Edmonton than in Victoria. The buildings are tall, the roads are super wide, and the hospital itself is gigantic.

Hanging out with Ben here was much different than at home. Usually I don't really see Ben at home, as he goes out often, and while home kinda sticks to himself. But here in Edmonton he was forced to hang out with me. I also showed him my new squash and foosball skills I've developed since September.

At Ben's request we spent Saturday evening at the West Ed waterpark (having not been there together since 1996) and bombed as many waterslides as we could in 2 hours. I think with the extra mass I've developed since I was 13, and also the "watersliding skillz" I've learned as a lifeguard, I am able to slide significantly faster. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Ben and I both had scratches on our backs for days afterwards. But it was tons of fun.

Its kinda sad because I used to imagine that one day Ben and I would be roommates after we moved out from home, but I don't think this will ever be the case with both of us locked into a seemingly endless education program.

Carla Visits!!

Carla's parents surprized her with plane tickets to Edmonton for this weekend!! So I've been visiting with Carla for the past two days! So far I have showed her off to all of my roommates, given her a tour of campus (something I haven't even done myself), showed her the hospital, and we've gone out for dinner twice (including going out for Chinese food with about 20 meds from my class to celebrate the Chinese New Year). I found it funny to learn that the menu in Mandarin is not the same as the menu in English. The meals are different and significantly less expensive. I only paid $11 for a 4 course meal with something like 10 dishes.

Unfortunately that night Carla got really sick. It started with GI upset, and by Saturday morning had somehow evolved into a nasty cold. I have seriously never been as sick as Carla is right now, in my whole life. She has been in bed all day long. Its too bad because we had big plans for today, including shopping at West Ed and clubbing with some of my friends. Well at least I got to take care of my girlfriend for a weekend (which I will probably be repaid for in some form or another ;-) and get in more studying than I originally would have. Hopefully Carla will be all better tomorrow morning...

On another note, I have been getting discouraged over the past couple of weeks in the anatomy lab. What started out as an intensely interesting experience, has quickly changed into a monotonous, required task. I think the problem is that the cadaver I am dissecting is very obese, so I spend a huge amount of time (i.e. at least 3 hours so far) simply cutting away fat. And this fat is everywhere, attached strongly to all of the vessels, and basically prevents you from observing anything in the anatomy without carefully teasing away the fat with tweezers. Hopefully my disections for the next course (Gastroenterology) will not be so tedious.