July 14, 2013 - The Calgary Stampede

The first day of classes!  And a trip to the Calgary Stampede! Amy taught all the students about the Calgary Stampede, so everybody had an idea of what we were getting into later.  Stampede was great.  We went after lunch and all of us first went to the rodeo.  It was the final day of Stampede, so the excitement in the grandstand was strong!  We saw all the classic events, bronco-busting, barrel racing, steer wrestling and bull riding!  It seemed pretty clear that the bulls were the meanest thing out there and that riding them was the hardest event at the rodeo.  One poor rider even got flipped right in the air by his bull!  After the rodeo, we visited the flip-side of the Wild West story in Calgary with a trip to the Indian Village.  We just managed to catch the last native dance, and then moved on to look at teepees in the village.  We even go the chance to have a photo with the famous red-clad Mounties you think of when you think of Canada.  The rest of the day at Stampede was spent the festival way; eating food, playing games and going on rides!  We spent a lot of time at the Bowl and Roll, and the Whack-a-Mole was a hit!  Several people in our group even won stuffy doll prizes, Tomas won two!  A second trip to the Indian Village allowed us to experience even more native dancing and  see such beautiful costumes.  That was something that was truly Canadian.  After a quick train ride back to SAIT we played a raucous card game before finally having the events of the day catch up to us as tiredness set in.  But what a day!  And the world famous Calgary Stampede? As fun as you can imagine! [AFG_gallery id='45']