Piping Woodpeckers - July 13 - Calgary Stampede

Today was a long and busy day for us at Wynchemna. First of all, it was the first full day that all of us were assembled together after our long bouts of travel to Calgary and second of all, we all got to go to the famed Calgary Stampede, one of the biggest festivals in Canada. We started the day off in breakfast groups. It was great to begin the morning with our new friends, sitting around the same table and all speaking English. We all did our part in organizing and cleaning up after breakfast. After breakfast we had a small test; we were all so worried about it, but it was not so bad in the end. The aim of the test was to give our teachers an idea of our English abilities and levels. At least we got to write the test in a beautiful building on SAIT's campus. Once we finished the test, we ate our lunch (most of us had Mexican food) and then took the train to the Calgary Stampede; we were all so excited to go there and the trains were full of other people also going. At the Stampede, the teachers had ride passes for us, allowing us to ride roller coasters all day should we choose. Stampede was crazy, so many people all dressed in cowboy hats and cowboy boots! It was a hot day too. But we had a great time on the rides, as well as looking at all the farm and agricultural exhibits. We saw so many cows! After the farm animals, we took in something totally different, a show by the Peking Acrobats (suggested by our teacher Gesthika); it was amazing! Even more amazing than the doughnut burger our teacher Shaun ate. However, the combination of the summer heat and the excitement of Stampede proved to be overwhelming, and we left exhausted. A quick return trip to SAIT on the train took us home where we cleaned up, ate a light meal and eventually hit our beds, with visions of cowboys and roller coasters in our head.[AFG_gallery id='156']