5 Things I'll Miss Most About Winnipeg

Winnipeg is one of those cities that's very easy to complain about. It's absolutely freezing cold for half of the year (hence the nickname Winterpeg), and you get maybe 2-3 months of nice, sunny weather, it's not exactly a famous touristy city, and the transit system is beyond awful.
But you see, Winnipeg is my home. I was born and raised here and I think it's a beautiful city. Maybe it's because I've travelled that I can come home and really see its beauty. The prairies may be flat and seemingly boring, but all you have to do is try a tiny bit and you'll always find something to do in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg is home. I'm definitely going to miss it while I'm gone.

Skating on the river is one of my favourite things about winter. It may be way too cold, but when the river is frozen, you forget about it all. It's the longest ice rink in the world and you can go whenever you want. I've also run on the river a few times, on the snow trail next to it. The best part? A rum & hot chocolate to warm up afterwards.

Winnipeg Folk Music Festival is my favourite festival by far. I practically grew up at this festival, going almost every year since I can remember, whether it was my dad on stage or some random band from across the globe I'd never heard of before, I owe this festival some of my best summer memories. Some years, it rained so much the week before that we would walk around barefeet in the mud (you can imagine how much fun that is as a child), or you would get the most perfect July weather, with a few sunburns. It's truly a place of happiness and music.

Festival du Voyageur is the outdoors winter festival almost every Franco-Manitoban waits for all year long. Every year, we would go with our class and learn a bit about the fur trade era and our history, all while having a ton of fun in the snow; climbing things, getting lost in the big snow maze or going down the ice slide, and don't forget the tire sur glace! As young adults, we go there to party, see some really great live bands, admire some fantastic snow sculptures and drink some caribou. It's where we get together and pretend it isn't incredibly cold outside. We all know once Festival is over, the summer isn't far away.

Camping season. Okay, so this may not exactly be a Winnipeg-specific thing, but Manitoba in general has so many beautiful places to go to during the summer, that it's definitely something I need to add here. I love going camping and spending time outside. The sunsets, the fresh pine-smelling air, the lakes... Manitoba is a lot prettier than we give it credit for.

The People. If there's one thing I'll miss more than anything, it's the people. Winnipeg has been my home for 21 years, and my roots are deep. I have made some truly great friends over the years, and I am so grateful for the people I have met. You have grown with me, inspired me, made me the person I am today.

There you have it! The 5 things I'll miss most about Winnipeg. Though I'm sure I can find all of these things in Berlin in one way or another, it just won't be the same as good ol' Winterpeg. Until next time!

Fat Ass Full Frosty Beaver Moon Half Marathon

Friday night, I ran a half marathon. As you can see from the title of this post, the total of the race is really, really long, so let's just shorten it to the Frosty Beaver, for the sake of my laziness.
This is a no fee, self-organized trail run half marathon for us crazy Winnipeg runners who run all winter long. Unlike most races, this one is at night. It started at 7pm. It also meant that the roads weren't closed, there were no water stations or big mile markers along the way. It was just us and the run. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

Friday night wasn't very cold. It was only about -15 with the wind chill, which meant that the majority of the run, which was on trail by the river were completely devoid of wind thanks to the trees. The first 7-8km, I was way too hot. I had to roll up my sleeves to cool down! There were some nasty gushes of wind at some points, but all around, it was a really good course. The snow was packed down on the trails and barely icy.

Right after passing mile 9, my phone died. That meant no music, or any way of knowing how many miles left to run.... for 4 miles. It doesn't seem like much, but nearly the end of a half marathon, there's not much that really keeps you going, and music is one of those things. It's a good thing I was running with two great women who really helped me finish the race! I finished with a time of about 2 hours, 34 minutes. That's only 20 minutes slower than my average, which is really good for a trail run that I barely even trained for!

It was such a run race! We all had our headlamps and our reflector stripes made us look like we belonged in a sci-fi movie! Everyone was in a great mood and it definitely helped that we had an "after-party" with cheap beer and nachos! Did I mention how much I love running in wintertime?

November Project

In September, a friend of mine suggested I come with her to this bootcamp called "November Project" and my first thought was "well it's September, but okay..." So the next morning, she picked me up at 6am and brought me to The Forks Skatepark where everyone met up for 6:15am.

The workout started with a little huddle, where we hugged 4 strangers and told them we were glad they were there. After that? Man oh man. We did all kind of things: squats, lunges, sprints, jumps, bear crawls, push-ups, etc, etc. This workout is every Wednesday, rain or shine (end of the world included) only lasts an hour, which makes it perfect for anyone who works regular 9-5 hours (unlike me) and needs to be done by 7:15am to get ready for work.

 It was one hell of a workout and I was definitely sore the next day. Not only was I sore, but I was also addicted. It was so much fun to be surrounded by over 100 people, working out for free and being allowed to go at my own pace if I needed it! The first day I went happened to be picture day, so I got some funny glasses for a picture:

November Project is pretty damn cool: there are "Tribes" all over North America (Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Vancouver, Washington, just to name a few), it's free, it's guaranteed to happen every week and the people are amazing. People of all ages, shapes and sizes come together every week at the crack of dawn to start their day on the right foot.

The only hitch... I'm by no means a morning person, so of course I haven't been as often as I should have or would have liked, but I go and every time I go, I love it. Here are some pictures from the few NPs I've gone to (I've gone to more than 3 I promise! I just skipped the group photos) :

**All photo credits go to November Project Winnipeg**

If you're still not convinced, check out this great video:


November Project WPG from 204 FILMS on Vimeo.

See you Wednesday at 6:14am!

A Day in the Life of a Tour Guide

**Disclaimer: the opinions shard in this post are mine and mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect the museum's mandate or views.**

For the last year, I've been working at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as an interpretive guide and honestly? I absolutely love my job. Every day, I get to be surrounded by inspiring stories, I get to meet really interesting people from all over the world, I get to work with such knowledgable and kind people, and I get to talk to people and explain the highlights of this beautiful museum.

In August, I gave a tour to a group of elderly folk, which isn't uncommon for me, but this group was special. They were a group of friends, all couples who get together every year in a different city in Canada as a sort of reunion. They were so interested in what I had to say and in the content of the museum, which is refreshing as sometimes I give tours to people who look like they would rather be anywhere else in the world. About a week after the tour, I received an email from my managers. They had gotten an email from one of the gentlemen on my tour with some really kind words and a picture:

"It was our great pleasure, as members of (...),  to visit the Museum of Human Rights last week. The experience was made even more enjoyable because of our most excellent guide, Emilie (Emily). Her 90 minute presentation was absolutely “first-class!” Attached is a photo which, hopefully, you can forward to her. Thank you! We will plan another visit next time we’re in Winnipeg."

When I get comments like this, it makes me feel like I'm making a change, like I can help inspire people and it's such a great feeling! It's always wonderful to know that others appreciate the work you do, especially when you love what you do.

A typical day in the life of a tour guide at the museum, usually starts at 9am with a morning meeting with the whole team where we make sure everyone is on the same page about the tours and school programs going on that day, as well as any other news or events happening that day. Then, I have a tour at 10:30am that's 90 minutes, which takes us to lunch time. After lunch, I either have a tour at 1:30 or 2:30pm, and in between I spend time roaming, talking to visitors or studying in the galleries to learn more of the content. At the end of the day, we write down the statistics of how many people were on our tour, where they're from and what sort of comments they gave us, whether it's about the museum or the tour itself.
Now I thought I would finish this post with a few images I took at the museum.

Indigenous Perspectives gallery

Hall of Hope

Garden of Contemplation 

Me on the Alabaster ramps

Bitter Memories of Childhood

Breaking the Silence gallery 

Inspiring Change gallery

I imagine... cards

Half-Marathon Time Lapse

Sunday, I ran the WFPS Half-Marathon with my GoPro strapped to my chest. I wanted to film the race so I could re-experience the run, as well as show others what it's like to run 13.1 miles. I encountered a few problems... The first being that the GoPro cameras have terrible battery life. I was only able to film about 40 minutes of the race: the first 30 minutes (5km), about 10 minutes here and there and the last 50 seconds of the race, when I sprinted to the finish line.

I ended up filming the race with a regular setting rather than a Time Lapse, since I knew that the camera would be bouncing around too much for the pictures to be clear. I found this amazing tutorial to turn a video into a time lapse and it worked! I wasn't 100% happy with the results of the time lapse; I thought it was way too fast, so I slowed down the video and it made the video a bit better. Of course, I'm still not quite satisfied with the end results, but I'm still testing out my camera and hopefully the next one will be even better!

Let me know what you think!

WFPS Half-Marathon

Yesterday I ran my fourth half-marathon of the year, and my fifth ever! This was the first time I ran the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Half-Marathon, or WFPS Half-Marathon. This race is fundraises for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which is a really good cause to be running for.
It was the fourth annual WFPS race, so it was awesome that I got to participate!

It was a pretty chilly morning, but all in all, it was a great race! Around mile 4, my ankle starting hurting. I've never had problems with it before, so I still have no idea what's wrong with it. It was just sore, like I had twisted it, except that I hadn't. I kept going and it was fine up until the last 5km, where I had to limp a little and walk more than I had planned to. I also wore my GoPro camera the entire time and filmed part of the race. I will be editing the video and hopefully have it up on Friday, so you'll get to experience the start and finish of a half-marathon first-hand.

I ended up with a time of 2:17:27 which is awesome! My goal was to run between 2:15 and 2:30, so this is perfect!  Right at the finish line, I ran like hell and felt like I was flying! It's the best part of the run when you've been running for over 2 hours and you have that little piece of strength left to sprint to the finish line. It's like all of a sudden your aching legs wake up and have all the energy in the world to run faster than they've even been able to. It's an amazing feeling.

Harry Potter Party

Did you know that Bloomsbury just came out with an illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?! Well... the book launch was yesterday!! McNally Robinson decided to host a "Harry Potter Party" at the Winnipeg location to celebrate the launch. It brings back so many memories of all the book launches that we all went to as the Harry Potter series came out. I remember when the last book came out, there was a huge party at Assiniboine Park with music, games, Chocolate Frogs, Wands, Bertie Botts Flavoured Beans, etc. for everyone to enjoy!

There was a live book reading of the Philosopher's Stone - they were literally reading the whole book! People came dressed in costumes and sat in the bookstore listening to the reading, following along with their own copy! There was also butterbeer and little themed pastries.

This book is gorgeous! Here are a few images from the book:

via

via

via

Now excuse me as I go binge-watch the entire Harry Potter series....!

Running During the Summer

Summer is the time when you see all the runners come out of hiding. You can't go a day, if not an hour without seeing someone braving the heat to go for a jog. For most of the summer, I wasn't part of those brave souls. Mostly due to an injury, but also because well, I hate running during the summer. In Winnipeg, the temperature can rise up to 35 degrees Celsius and running in that heat, with the sun glaring down on you is a recipe for a heat stroke/disaster. The obvious solution would be early mornings or late evenings... but I'm not a morning person and I work evenings... So what solution could there be?
I did my best. But hey, having an injury definitely helped with the excuse of not running! I still managed to get a few good runs in this summer and honestly? Some of them really weren't so bad. It also means all kinds of new running gear (always a win), and the landscape is pretty amazing.
You wouldn't believe it, but every single one of these pictures was taken within the city limits. We have some beautiful paths and I loved getting to discover them.

Sometimes you can find all kinds of little treasures, like this chess table in Assiniboine Park.

 

Sometimes during a long run, you can admire the gorgeous dance of colours that are our prairie sunsets.

The thing with summer is finding a way to stay cool during the harsh heat... Sometimes it's shade, or water, or just toughing it out. Some (crazy) people like to wear layers! Or sometimes, it's the clothes themselves that keep you cool.  - Yes, there's another blog post about this! Stay tuned!

Now it's time for some cooler weather.... Perfect for running, sweaters and cuddling. Just a few of my favourite things.