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Well my March Break is nearly over and I’m dreading school tomorrow. I have not been feeling very well so that is not helping. I had two naps today!! That never happens! I’ve also never had allergies before, which I think is what is causing my itchy eyes and mouth, and general malaise. Scott picked me up some Claritin so I’ve started taking that and hopefully it helps.

In more positive news, I got my hair cut the other day and I really like it. Sorry that the picture is so blurry… that’s an Ubuntu issue, since my webcam looks a lot better when I’m using Windows. Not sure how to fix that.

I did my Transport of Dangerous Goods online training today. I am now certified to handle radioactive stuff. Kind of cool.

We went out for St. Paddy’s day yesterday but ended up just hanging out with Brian at his house and then going out for dinner at a non-Irish place because we didn’t want to wait in line and also pay cover to get into a crowded pub. It was fun anyway and my chicken burger was tasty.

OH also on Friday we went to the Eatery with Rosemarie and Rob but I’ll save talking about that for another entry because the camera is too far away from me right now.

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Scott, Rosemarie and I went to Mt. Seymour last night, with a friend of mine from class. They have ‘ladies night’ on Monday evenings so Rosemarie and I got our tickets for free.

We did a whole big equipment switcheroo, which I think is pretty awesome. We started off with:

  • me using Rosemarie’s ski boots and skis
  • Scott using my old snowboard and his boots
  • Rosemarie using her snowboard boots and her snowboard

but then Scott’s boots were too big for my old snowboard so Rosemarie and him switched boards. So everyone was using someone else’s equipment! Funnily enough we were all happier that way than with our own stuff.

Anyway the conditions were pretty abysmal. Well that’s not entirely true, the snow was lovely and there was no ice on the ground, but the visibility was TERRIBLE.

Night skiing + snowy ice + fogged up goggles is a terrible combination. I could only see out the bottom 1 cm of my goggles, and only when I was right underneath a lamp, basically. I spent a lot of my time blindly skiing towards the light.


It was my first time skiing since our family trip to Whistler, in 2003, I think. It all came back to me though and I really enjoyed it. Skiing was 98327987827323 times more fun than snowboarding at Whistler, so I think I’m going to switch back.

I really like that picture of Rosemarie!

I should have spent more time with Scott. He was really struggling by himself, but then at the end of the night I went and found him and gave him a little lesson on turning and even linking turns. By the end of the run he did 6 turns in a row! This was a breakthrough moment. I’m not sure anyone had ever really told him what he should try and do so he was doing some kind of weird switching back and forth thingy before, left foot forward one second, then right foot forward the next. Anyway I think he’s doing quite a bit better now and hopefully understands what to do a bit more. Too bad we might not have a chance to go again this year.

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On Sunday we made homemade Montreal style bagels. I used this recipe, and they turned out pretty nice! I was surprised at how simple it actually was to make our own bagels. We just had to make the dough, knead for 10 minutes, cut up the dough and shape it into bagels, then boil for 90 seconds, dip in sesame seeds, and bake for 20 minutes.

Before baking:

I forgot to take an after baking picture. They puffed up a bit in the oven and got a nice brown colour.

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My second day of skeleton was really awesome. I woke up pumped and ready for another session. My first four runs I got 99.72, 99.58, 98.99, 99.42 km/hr. Frustrating. That 98.99 km/hr run was when my coach pushed me straight into the wall at the very top. I heard him yell ‘OH NO!!’ as I disappeared around the first corner. I recovered from the bump though, luckily. Sometimes in skeleton you hit an edge near the beginning of the run and end up bashing back and forth the whole way down. They usually get a speed in the 80’s or low 90’s at the speed trap. Luckily I have not had a run like that yet!

Anyway after the fourth run we were told that the next one would be our last. I told myself ‘OK Katrina, you really need to focus and have a perfect run’. The run right before that I thought was pretty good too but I still didn’t get that 100 km/hr that I wanted. I got the other people to help smooth down the back of my sweater, tuck my gloves into my sleeves and I smoothed down my tights on my legs. Coach Ivo gave me a slightly bigger push than before. He really wanted to see me get 100 km/hr too but often giving a bigger push at our level means less control on the way down and a slower speed and time. I relaxed as fully as I could and concentrated on keeping my chin out and my shoulders down and my toes pointed and I made sure to lean into the one corner I sometimes bumped on the way down.

It felt like an awesome smooth run and when they announced my speed at the bottom we all cheered. I was so happy!! 100.60 km/hr and a finish time of less than 30 seconds. A perfect way to end the session.

Dang Brian beat me by 0.09 s on my perfect run, so I actually still only came in second. Achieving my personal goal feels really really good though.

That’s the view from the finishing area. When we do skeleton we only get about half way up and then the crew helps pick up your sled and pass it to you.

Later that day Dylan, Brian and I also got a chance to do a bobsled run! Sometimes you really do just need to ask. Tourists pay a lot of money to do one bobsled run but we got to do it for free. Woohoo.

Bobsled was freaking bumpy. My head bounced around all over the place and I couldn’t even hold it up in the last corner. So much force. It was just like a really rough rollercoaster. I like skeleton better.

I don’t have any pictures of me doing bobsled because I went at a different time than Dylan and Brian. But I tried to take pictures for them…. and failed. That is the best picture I got, and that’s with Rosemarie’s camera! They were going about 125 km/hr.

Dylan and Brian after bobsled. The guy on the far left is the one that took me down as well. I guess he’s always trying to get more track hours so he has room to take other sliding association members down before and after tourist sessions.


Oh and here is a creepy picture of me in a hotel robe playing Settlers in between hot tub sessions. What a life.

I sure wish I was going again this weekend. Instead I’m going to be studying… a lot! We have three midterms next week again. Then holy cow it’s already March Break. Insane. We have to put in our top three choices for hospital placements this week and soon that will be decided as well. First year… coming along!

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I had a really awesome weekend. I said that already.

We all met at Rosemarie’s house. She fed us homemade sushi. It was snowing a bit so we were a little concerned about the drive up to Whistler, but it ended up being totally fine, we just drove a little slower than usual. We arrived at our first hotel and were pleasantly surprised at the size of the room, and the free extra parking spot. We ate and drank and played Wits and Wagers. An excellent way to get to know new people! Rosemarie was the only one who had met everyone else before.

I can’t even remember who won. Doesn’t matter, it was fun!

Next morning was a bit frantic. The Facebook page had said that our skeleton session was from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM. At 8:30 AM I got a text from the organizer saying ‘WHERE ARE YOUUUUU’ and ‘YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HERE AN HOUR EARLY!’ which was pretty annoying. I don’t know how we were supposed to know that. Also the session was actually until 11:00 AM. Anyway we rushed rushed rushed and got up to the sliding centre where we quickly filled out paperwork, grabbed our helmets and sleds, and got driven up to the start.

I don’t have any pictures of the actual skeleton session this time because Tink was taking about 9 million pictures of each of us, so I left it up to her. Hopefully she posts some soon!!


I didn’t do my best on the first day, but I still had lots of fun. My speeds were between 98.40 km/hr and 99.42 km/hr. I REALLY wanted to get more than 100 km/hr but it didn’t happen that day. We swapped sleds around a lot to try them out. Each sled is really quite different than the next, in responsiveness and weight etc etc. Actually I placed first in that 98.40 km/hr run so I’m not sure what was happening there.

Brian (Scott’s friend!) did awesome both days of sliding. He’s a natural! The coach really liked him a lot. Brian had many runs over 100 km/hr. He is now addicted, which is good, because this ‘club’ really needs all the members it can get.

After skeleton I went snowboarding. The conditions were great (TONS O’ POWDER) but I suck at snowboarding. Really I have been snowboarding since middle school and I have not improved much. I found it extremely tiring and actually not that much fun. I am seriously considering switching back to skiing or snowblading because I miss being able to explore more of a mountain. Plus at the moment I don’t have a snowboard or boots so it’s a pretty good time to switch.


Anyway I did a few runs with Rob and then one really long one with David, and then the day was over. We moved into our next hotel (Westin!!) and spent many hours in the hot tub, playing Settlers, and eating dinner. Then back to the hot tub. Good times!

OK I’m going to leave day 2 for another entry.

Scott is home! He is sleeping on the couch. He made tea, put on a tv show, then fell asleep. I turned off the show because I was doing school work, then he woke up, drank some tea, turned the TV on again, and he is now asleep. Yeesh.