Almost done!

Hello!

Thought I would give a quick update on life since it has been awhile. So right now I'm taking Reason and Freedom as my class (it is a philosophy class), it is part of the foundation program at Quest. I find philosophy pretty confusing most of the time, so this class has been pretty challenging. It has still been interesting to actually read and learn what some of the famous philosophers had to say about the world. So far we have covered Brecht, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Freud, and are reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. I'm a little stressed out as the next week is going to be extremely busy. I need to write a final essay for Wednesday which is the last day, finish reading Crime and Punishment(it's huge!) and pack up all my stuff to put into storage. At least I have the motivation that I get to go home soon! My class did get a bit of a break from philosophy today. A teacher interviewing for the language professor position came and gave a class on mandarin chinese. It was kind of random, but I really enjoyed it and actually learned to speak a few sentences in chinese and write some of the symbols. 

Tomorrow there is an event called Questival taking place at the school. It includes a craft fair where students can sell items they have made. After that there is the student showcase where students are chosen to present what the teachers consider to be some of the best presentations from their classes. I'm really excited because my movie for molecular bio was chosen! I'm also really excited to hear my room-mate present her paper on the economics of Harry Potter. Later in the evening there is a school dinner and dance. The whole day sounds pretty eventful

so I'm looking forward to it. 

Here are some random photos.. 

.

some interesting ice

My class goes until 4:30 so there have been these amazing sunsets

from the classroom every day. 

View of the cafeteria and mountains.

Leah

Snow!

Today was the first ski of season for me and it was so much fun! There is an incredible amount of snow at Callaghan valley at the moment. On their website it says there's 60 cm packed base and 125 cm unpacked.  I still find it strange that you can go mountain biking in Squamish where there's no snow and then drive 45 minutes to where it's full blown winter. I did get out for a mountain bike ride yesterday, the trails are still really ridable, although some of the lower points are getting a little flooded. Somehow I managed to only fall over right in the middle of the biggest streams/puddles haha.. it left me with some soaking legs and feet. I'm finished my bio class now so I've had a few days off which has been really nice. Here are some photos...

Bridge on one of the mountain bike trails, the river is really high right now

A waterfall at Callaghan that I somehow have never seen before

Really pretty river

Kellina (my room-mate) and John (Whose ski binding unfortunately broke

halfway through the day!)

Stream crossing the ski trail

Kellina and I

Article

I just got this article from pedal forwarded to me. There's some 

cool photos and a good write up on the different races at canada games. 

I enjoy how Karlee and I are described as 'devastating' in the crit race haha.

Check it out..

Leah

Rain, Biology and Biking

I've been sort of bad at this blogging thing lately and have decided it's time make another effort at it..

 I've been back in Squamish for just over two months now, attending classes in my second year at Quest University. The classes are set up in three and a half week 'blocks', and I am currently immersed in molecular biology. I haven't taken any bio since grade 10 and I had forgot how interesting it could be. Even though the block program can be intense at times and goes by fast, it lets you concentrate on that one subject with no other classes to distract you. 

I'm currently working on a movie for class on Genetically Modified Crops. Hopefully it will turn out as I have no experience with movie making technology.. It is crazy to consider that this technology was only recently developed in the 80's and the first products started being distributed in the mid- 1990s, yet we already use it globally. I guess the same could be said for the internet.. It is crazy how fast technology can spread these days. 

This class has been quite the eye opener in some ways. I've learned that antibiotics might not be effective in as little as ten years time. When we take antibiotics, there are always some bacteria that survive because they are immune in some way. These immune bacteria then multiply and infect people, creating 'Superbugs' that are not treatable with antibiotics. It is scary to think that in the future we could die of simple bacterial infections that would not be considered life threatening these days. There is one alternative treatment to antibiotics being researched and developed called phage therapy. It basically consists of using bacteriophages (type of virus) to kill the bacteria. Hopefully they are able to develop and learn more about this technology before antibiotics are useless. Anyways, that's my lesson of the day for you!

The rainy season has now hit the west coast in full swing and is making training a little more difficult. I think training in the rain can really help build mental toughness. It definitely takes some extra effort to get outside on a rainy day. I'm still trying to perfect the art of dressing to not finish a ride soaking wet/freezing. Have not quite accomplished that yet, apparently fenders and rubber gloves are a good start! Having considered this, it is still lucky that cyclists are still able to ride outside at this time of year when other places in Canada are already getting snow! And the rain does really make you appreciate those rare sunny days even more.

I've found mountain biking is pretty fun (as long as you are  prepared to get muddy!). I got out riding with some friends yesterday and it was fun riding through the slick trails with streams of water running down them. We left pretty late in the day though, which left us riding down the last section of the trail a little blindly.

The snow line seems to be creeping down the mountains every day now. Hopefully Callaghan Valley will have enough snow for skiing soon. I'm helping to organize the Quest Cross Country ski club this year and we are hoping to organize a few trips before Christmas holidays. 

I'll try to get some more frequent posts up from now on..

Leah

The start of my blogging adventure

Hello everyone! So I've come to the decision to finally start a blog, I know my family would really like to know where I am and what I'm doing half the time so maybe this will help! 

So I just returned home from racing eight crit races at American Superweek down in Milwaukee and Chicago. I've been wanting to race this series for a long time and finally there were no conflicting races this year. Overall it was a fantastic experience getting to race with a big pack of women. I actually managed to win my first pro race ever at the Ray Basso Bensenville Criterium!  My team-mate Karlee also put in a good show coming in third in another race. 

The team arrived back late the other night from Superweek then woke up early the next morning to go race provincials in Holland, Manitoba. I never knew Manitoba could be so hilly! Seriously if you want to ride hills go check it out. I think everyone was pretty exhausted and had tired legs from the long days of racing at Superweek. Despite that I managed to stick with the front 50+ men who we raced with and won u23 provincials (yes this is manitoba, there aren't enough people to separate all the categories). 

That's all the exciting news for now, I'll attempt to keep this somewhat updated! 

Leah