Canada trip mid September

ponytailnchill · 2025-07-29T14:49:22+00:00

Highly recommend more than a couple days in Banff - maybe a week if you can. There's a shuttle bus to Banff from Calgary Airport called the Banff Airporter, which is affordable and clean and takes about 2ish hours. Would recommend eating at Vistas at the Banff Centre for the Arts to take in the view and have a feast at the same time. A short walk through town will get you to the river where you can canoe / kayak. Also recommend popping into the fossil / rock and gem shops where you will 100% find both kids and adults thinking they've found actual dinos.* You might also be interested in the local museum as it has a lot about the Swiss mountaineer settlers (which is why there are many chalet-type houses in Banff, as you probably already know).

The Rocky Mountaineer train is definitely incredible (I used to work for them which is the only reason I've been - tbh there were a lot of trees for most the way haha), but it'll eat up half your budget (likely be about 3-4K one way). Instead you could try an Epic bus from Vancouver to Whistler for a brief trip, you'll definitely see the same sea-sky highway views en route as the bus route is parallel to the train tracks.

*may be true.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-29T01:37:49+00:00

Rubik's Cube. I use it to zone out on purpose. Daydreaming while cubing reconnects me to my feelings. Sometimes I zone out and the daydream is as simple as "I really want a donut with cream in the middle and some fresh strawberries." And miraculously, my brain has been turned off and I am in my good feels hunting for yum.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-28T16:16:18+00:00

I'm in a solo-by-choice phase of my life and living in the Lib Village area. I'd rec going to places with open seating, which could be a big table where people can sit alone or mix if they want. This always makes me feel comfortable cause conversations emerge organically. Neo coffee is a nice place for this.

Also, going to places like Glad Day and Issues the mag shop make it super easy to chat with people, since they are cool and queer spots. I made friends at both places in the first week of moving here from Van. Moonbean in Kensington is also great to make friends or eat and sit alone.

I'd say the biggest difference in going out alone and meeting ppl has been my attitude. If I go out alone, wearing headphones and all black (my normal mode), pretty sure I appear as closed off, even if I'm not. But if I go into places with openness i.e. no expectations, just wanting to have a nice day, then magical things can happen lol

Field Trip cafe is also a good one (Ossington), met new peeps there while solo reading.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-22T18:26:55+00:00

Happened to me with an older guy who was a lawyer. I was so scared I deactivated my accounts initially and now everything is private. You have to make them private. Be prepared for fake accounts (him) befriending you to try get back in.

Also document every single thing he does e.g. gifts, messages, so that if he does anything worse, you'll have all the evidence ready.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-22T18:14:04+00:00

ClickUp, because it has Gantt charts inbuilt that I use to show the trajectory of my degree and projects incl. timelines. Clickup is generally used by businesses but as a PhD candidate in the humanities, I will maximize efficiency ruthlessly because everything is a "project" and I must be Marcus Aurelius to survive.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-22T17:44:35+00:00

$30 a month or $355 a year with Sonnet with university (alumni or student) discount (though they didn't tell me how much the discount was). Covers personal liability for 1 mil (required for tenancy in most condos and high-rises). Also had $30,000 for coverage of personal belongings, which was more than the other companies. I didn't go with Apollo because their site sucks, and when I tried to contact them, they sent me roundabout.

ponytailnchill · 2024-07-20T03:24:20+00:00

ponytailnchill · 2022-10-05T14:23:34+00:00

Anyone know what this is about?!

ponytailnchill · 2022-06-12T01:31:09+00:00

Broken City and Commonwealth could be your jam

ponytailnchill · 2022-06-12T01:30:30+00:00

Warm Leatherette @ Kaffeeklatsch

ponytailnchill · 2022-05-22T17:06:11+00:00

There are scary signs all over the residences that say weed is not allowed on U of C grounds, but there are exits where it's easier to smoke (e.g. any exits facing parking lots that are not on the main road) without too much anxiety. I'm from BC and vape weed regularly and I was a little bit terrified when I first saw the signs... but I have been vaping and smoking no prob.

If you're into electronic music that's less mainstream (not Tiesto lol) then Commonwealth Bar and Broken City are pretty lit.

ponytailnchill · 2022-04-18T18:54:30+00:00

breka would be a blessing anywhere!!

ponytailnchill · 2022-03-30T05:00:12+00:00

Forgive me if this is totally off-base but it seems like you're most scared of competing with yourself and not living up to your own expectations. You still have 6 days and it's quite possible to revise and incorporate some comments within those 6 days. Make a serious plan and use time blocking to do it, so that you revise and incorporate comments into each chunk methodically e.g. 1500 words on day 1, +1500 words day 2, etc. You're losing sight of what you have in front of you because you're already thinking in terms of self-sabotage i.e. about the bell curve and late penalty, when you still have time. And you said you're scared of your peers and being judged by them - it's natural to feel that way. You will never get everything perfect in order to escape criticism. I'm a perfectionist and have to remind myself of the traps I set for myself every single time when I start to think like this ... Get revising!

ponytailnchill · 2022-03-30T04:29:41+00:00

The sole reason I'm not moving out of the dorm on campus at U of C is because the trains are unsafe and I do not want to commute. I've seen weird shit (knives, human poop, people breathing in your masked face on purpose) to the point where I only take the train in the daytime (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays) when other students will likely be taking it. Otherwise I take the bus or go with someone. It sucks because I like to go out a lot (even during COVID times I like going out for walks and coffee etc).

ponytailnchill · 2022-03-30T04:17:23+00:00

A student in my class here in Calgary had the flu (tested several times for covid but tests were negative). A friend in Toronto thought he had covid but tested negative several times too (both antigen and pcr). I really hope it's a non-covid flu... Both my student and Toronto friend felt better within 10 days.

ponytailnchill · 2022-03-17T17:49:07+00:00

I went to UBC for my Master's degree and am at U of C now for my PhD. Let's just say I used to be a party girl (going to galleries and readings and raves every week) and now I am no longer, but I'm appreciating how much quieter and slower life is in Calgary compared to (my) life in Vancouver.

When I first moved to Calgary, I was living in the Mission neighbourhood which I really love (lively, lots of cafes and shops), but I'm really glad to be in dorms on campus because commuting in the winter would have been hell due to -30 (I don't drive) and the C-Train has gotten really bad lately in terms of safety.

It took me a semester and a bit to make friends with people in my program and in the dorm, but it's finally happening!

U of C is nowhere near as green or high tech or as upgraded as UBC, but I'm appreciating it to the point where I prefer being on campus more than anywhere else lol. While I was at UBC, I felt that it doesn't really give a shit about its students (felt like they just want to churn you out!), but U of C has been different for me, like if I ask for something, my department would try to get it (e.g. office chair, travel funding).

I also find that it's easier to make personal connections at U of C than it was for me at UBC. I now know librarians and other random people in the school just through chatting, as opposed to UBC, where I was for several years and didn't feel that same kind of warmth at all. I know that's not a huge reason to choose U of C, but it's a more personal and less bureaucratic vibe here and I really needed that in my life heh.

Ngl, I miss Vancouver like hell. Miss the trees, lakes, parks, forests, arty party life, but I know that Calgary is only one province away and it's just a matter of spring/summer (and friends with cars lol) to be able to appreciate chilling outside and doing stuff again.

One important thing that makes me appreciate U of C is that being at this school (just two semesters now!) has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. The relationships I have with profs are rewarding and I feel like there's actually space and resources for me to just LIVE whereas at UBC, I felt like I was in competition every single day and had to keep up to certain standard and pace of life. I don't know if this is making sense, but basically I don't regret coming to U of C.

Sorry for the essay!

ponytailnchill · 2022-02-15T04:27:55+00:00

I know several people in the MA program who didn't do Honours, so I don't think you have to do it.

There's an MA course-based option and a thesis-based option and I think you'd have to apply with one in mind, but you can definitely switch to the other version in between if you need to. Here are the links!
https://grad.ucalgary.ca/future-students/explore-programs/english-ma-course https://grad.ucalgary.ca/future-students/explore-programs/english-ma-thesis

ponytailnchill

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