Canadian War Museum

Last night a group of co-op students went to the Canadian War Museum.

The first exhibit started out with artifacts collected from wars prior to the World Wars such as the uniforms of important lieutenants and majors, surgeons' operating and blood transfusion kits, and the world's first machine gun. You can see the bullet hole in the chest that killed this lieutenant.

Then there was the First World War exhibit. Canadian infantry captured this German 77 millimetre gun during Vimy Ridge. The muzzle is destroyed at the end, and the story is that the Germans tried to explode the gun before Canadians got to it, but were killed before they could escape.

I found it interesting to read the stories on specific Canadian soldiers. This boy was only 17 and is the youngest Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Belgium, and volunteered to run 100m across a field of open gunfire to get more ammunition. On his way back across, he captured German artillery, machine guns and prisoners.

Some exhibits shared letters exchanged between families, or other dreaded letters like the ones below.

The car below was Adolf Hitler's black armoured Mercedes Benz limousine. It was captured by American troops in 1945 and brought to Canada a few years later.

This is a photo of "depth charge canisters" that were filled with a couple hundred kilograms of explosives and launched over the side of a ship. After sinking to a pre-set depth they would explode to destroy a submarine below with shock waves.

There was a section dedicated to the Royal Canadian Engineers, who built roads and bridges and cleared minefields in the rugged terrain of Italy. Many engineers were killed or wounded since they had to perform their work under enemy fire. And I thought class projects were stressful enough...

This is just a small corner of the last exhibit that housed rows and rows of armoured cars and tanks.

This is Valentine, a British designed tank manufactured in Canada and used in World War II.

Dr. Jane!

With the warm weather continuing, I met up with two other co op students yesterday and we headed back over Alexandra Bridge to Gatineau towards the Museum of Civilization for an exciting event.

A fellow Guelph co-op student outside the Museum

Jane Goodall has a new documentary that got shortlisted for an Oscar nomination entitled ‘Jane’s Journey’. Jane Goodall herself was there at the museum to introduce the movie and do a Q&A session afterwards, and I met her at the end at the book signing! I knew about her famous work with the chimps in Gombe, discovering how they had warfare among themselves and used tools like humans do, but I had no idea she had become such an activist in terms of sustainability and the environment. She travels 300 days a year speaking to people; she was really quite motivational and funny, too! If you get a chance to watch her documentary, it’s really interesting and depicts how she got chosen to go to Gombe, her life there, and what made her switch from field research (a young girl asked if she could be anywhere in the world at that moment, where would she be…Jane answered without hesitation that she would be in the forests of Gombe) to traveling the world to speak to people. She had a message and a passion that I won’t forget and I’m so glad I got that opportunity!

Our exciting front row seats for the Q&A.

Meeting Jane! 

Alexandra Bridge lit up on the walk back to Ottawa

Wierd Weather

The past two days were beautiful, sunny, 25 degree days. It was so strange to be wearing shorts and flip flops and stand on the big mounds of snow that were still left over from the Snowflake Kingdom. A month ago we were bundled up, sliding down ice at this same spot!

My friend Emily and I brought our books and walked over to Major Park by Parliament after work to enjoy the nice weather. 

Then today, I had quite an interesting walk to work. The bridge to Gatineau was surrounded by some super thick fog. Looking out over the railing, my usual view of the Parliament buildings, Alexandra bridge and the Ottawa river was a little obstructed..

Mont Tremblant

Walking over the bridge to work this morning I noticed the ice of the Ottawa river was beginning to melt. By the time I left work, water was flowing and it was completely defrosted. I was banking on the snow to stay in March, but with the trend of higher than seasonal temperatures across Ontario recently it feels like Spring is on its way and I don’t think there will be any more snowy activites. I had wanted to try out cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing in Gatineau Park which was a lot of great trails, but maybe I’ll just have to try hiking there in a few weeks. No more snowboarding either - my brother said some years he can get use out of his Tremblant pass right into April but I don’t think that will be the case this year. So, in memory of the good times at Tremblant, here are some of my favourite pictures from the times I went. Clear days give a fantastic view but I think the grey, cloudy days are just as beautiful.

At the top - this was my second day out. The first day I went there was really low visibility so I had no idea those peaks ahead existed!

This is my favourite photo!

My brother John and I near the base of the mountain on my last run of the season with village of Tremblant in the background. 

Wildlife and Nature

On Tuesday a large group of co op students from several different Environment Canada offices in Gatineau and Ottawa went on a tour of the National Wildlife Research Centre on the Carleton University campus. Their labs mostly do studies on migratory birds because they can be used as indicators of the quality of the environment around them. One type of bird they study, the Arctic Tern, migrates from the North Pole all the way to the South Pole, and I think the scientist said that the amount of distance it travels in its lifetime is equivalent to 3 round trips to the moon and back. They store a lot of specimens in the facility and we got to check out one -40 degree walk-in freezers and some liquid nitrogen storage tanks. They have been able to save a type of eagle which, because of toxic substances, were laying eggs with shells that were too thin so the parents were damaging the eggs when they sat on them. It was a really cool facility and if any students are interested in this type of research, the scientists were clear that they are always looking for students on work terms!

Taking advantage of another cheap Thursday night, some co op students headed to the Museum of Nature to check out some free exhibits. We saw some massive slugs and tarantulas in the Animalium, dinosaur fossils, and exhibits of mammals and birds. There was also an exhibit of amazing rocks and minerals. The colours and shapes really were spectacular!

Archelon fossil: a massive extinct sea turtle!

Movies and shopping

This past weekend my friend Jean came to visit who is on a work term in Guelph. On Friday night we went to Bytowne Cinema, an old movie theatre near my house built in the 1940s with only one screen and a second level balcony to watch the movie. We saw "Monsieur Lazhar", a movie made in Montreal that was Oscar nominated for best foreign-language film.

On Saturday we had some fun walking around the Rideau Center and the Market area.

We scoped out quite a few little vintage shops in the Market; Jean made some good finds and I found a Carmen Sandiego costume...

Saturday night we braved the cold and snowy weather for dinner at one of the many great pubs in the Market. I keep ending up at the irish pub Heart and Crown - have been there four times now!