The Weather in Calgary – Part 1

Our week forecast: chilly and sunny

The title of this post is The Weather in Calgary – Part 1 because, for sure, we are going to write some posts about the weather here. Coming up: Part 2, 3, 4 etc…

As soon as we decided to move here, we started to hear everybody's opinions about the weather in Calgary. Yes, everybody has something to say about the weather here. We have heard thinks like: “Calgary has only one month of nice weather during the whole year”; “in Calgary, it can snow even during the summer”; “everybody has a truck in Calgary, because there is too much snow”; “it is cold but sunny there”, and other thoughts.

Well, we are not experts about Calgaryan weather. However, after 2 months living here, we can share some thoughts about it.

First of all, the weather has been nice since we arrived, so it is not true that Calgary has only one month of nice weather during the whole year. We can guarantee at least 2 months! LOL!

Regarding the snow during the summertime, we talked with some Calgaryans about snow falling in July. That is true, some friends, who live here for a while, confirmed this fact. But when it happens, it is just for one or two days: the temperature drops, it snows, and after some days, it is 30°C again.

Everybody has a truck in Calgary? Come on… It is pretty common to use the public transportation, especially to go to downtown. Today Calgary is the second most expensive city to park in North America, behind New York City. And we heard that when it snows, more people take public transportation, because they do not feel safe to drive with snow. Let’s wait and see… The good point is that bus stops are completely covered, which makes it more comfortable to wait for the bus during the wintertime.

Yes, we have sun! That is so true. In two months, it rained only four days. After living in Nanaimo for 14 months, this is a reason to celebrate.

And finally, of course here is colder than in Vancouver Island. In the last weeks, in the morning (when we are going to work) it is always O°C; and in the evening (when we are going home) it is around 13°C. According to forecasts this week will be colder!  However, as it is not humid here, O°C and even -3°C in the morning is not so bad. The same temperature in Nanaimo feels like colder!

So, this is our first weather update.  Snow is coming, so the post The Weather in Calgary – Part 2 will be published soon. Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Different Thanksgiving Meal!

Our delicious Thanksgiving meal

You may remember that last year, we had our first Thanksgiving dinner here in Canada at our friends Karl and Mariel’s place, in Nanaimo. We had a great time talking with Karl’s family, listening to good music, and eating turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie with ice cream… Wow! Canadians have a great way to thank God!!

Well, from that day until this weekend so many things happened as you guys have seen by reading our posts. So many good things and some tough moments which made us stronger. To summarize: Patricia and I had very good reasons to thank God again for 12 amazing months. A Thanksgiving dinner would be perfect, but we changed our minds and we thought that could be even better if we had a Brazilian lunch to celebrate.

That is what we did! We went to a Brazilian “churrascaria”, which is a restaurant which serves barbecue, the real Brazilian barbecue. Well, we can tell you that we had a very good time there and I will tell you why. The Brazilian “churrascaria” normally works this way: you have a table with some salads, rice, potatoes, polenta, beans, and stuff like that and you also have waiters who keep bringing you fresh meat until the moment you say something like “please stop, for God sakes, I am so stuffed!!”. At the “churrascaria” where we went to this weekend, they had 11 different meat types and, wow, we ate a lot. We have never been in a “churrascaria” here in Canada, so we were really missing the Brazilian barbecue. After that lunch, we walked for a while and had a quick nap to help our poor digestive systems, but it was really worthwhile!      

Very good way to thank God for everything He has given us and a good way to ask Him to help us out here in our path in Canada!

And since our digestive systems are still working on the Brazilian lunch that we had this weekend, Patricia and I also enjoyed this beautiful fall weekend with a walk at Confederation Park, a breathtaking place right in the back of our place. Check these pics out and let us know if this is not a breathtaking place. We hope you readers enjoyed the photos and also your Thanksgiving weekend!

God bless you all!!! Thanks for reading and see you soon!

To Flame or not to Flame, That is The Question!

Flames 4 - 2 Coyotes

This week, after one and a half year living in Canada, we had the opportunity to watch our first NHL game. A supplier of TVI (the company that Patricia is working for) gave the company two tickets  for a pre-season game, where the Calgary Flames would face the Phoenix Coyotes, in Calgary. And Patricia's boss asked here if she would like to go to the game! Of course! 

When we first publicly mentioned that we would watch the Flames against the Coyotes, the controversies started among us and our friends… They said: how can you guys switch from the Canucks to the Flames in just a blink of an eye!? You bandwagon jumpers, you gypsy horses…

What our angry friends did not understand is that Patricia and I were only picking a second favourite team. Now Patricia has the Flames as her second favourite team and I have the Canucks as my second favourite team!! 

We had some fun answering those “accusations” on Facebook and went to the game! When we dropped off the train and saw the arena, we could only think “wow, what an arena… beautiful”. So, we had our dinner and got into the stadium to watch the game! You can see some pictures here. 

Patricia and I, then, started to look for our seats and when we finally found those, we got so excited. We would watch the game so close to the ice… About three metres away from the ice! Unbelievable!! The game was perfect: Flames defeated the Coyotes (4-2), we saw former Canucks player Raffi Torres so close, we had so much fun that night… 

So, yes, the Flames are my new favourite team. And it’s not only because of that game, but also because of the way Calgary has welcomed us and because of the way Calgarians have embraced us… I feel like I am here for a long time. Calgary and Calgarians are treating us very well and taking care of us like Nanaimo and Nanaimoites did. 

You know, people say that I cannot cheer on the Canucks and on the Flames at the same time, but I will! I am now a Flames fan, but I still love the Canucks because of all the good moments that Luongo and company,  Nanaimo, and BC provided me! I know that cheering on the Flames and on the Canucks at the same time is like cheering on Brazil and Argentina at the same time, but… I will try!

Thanks for reading! See you!