Canadian Rockies

Banff National park is located about 100 miles west from Calgary, Alberta.  Since my hometown usually don’t have snow, winter in Banff was bitterly cold quite inconvenient to getting around.  But I was happy because I could try something new.   It’s skiing.  That’s all people can do in snowy winter there.  When spring comes, I fell in love with the beauty of the scenery.  I was not expected to stay long in Banff at first, but I finally stayed there until summer.  I visited many places around Banff National Park. One of my favorite places is Lake Louise which is located about 60 miles from Banff.  The best time to visit there is right after the ice of the lake melted.  The color of the Lake Louise turns creamy blue and was amazingly beautiful.  I still cannot forget the color.  Another favorite place is Lake O’hara. I was suggested to go there by local person who lives in Lake Louise and he said that it is the most spectacular place in the Canadian Rockies.  Instead of taking a tour bus, I rent a bicycle to get there from Lake Louise. I believe that it took more than 3 hours.  Parks Canada has limited summer access of people to enter the Lake to protect environment.  Luckily, I and my friends allowed getting in to the shuttle bus which runs by national parks to enter.  After 30 minutes ride on the shuttle bus, we started to hike to Lake O’hara.  During a hiking, I was very impressed fantastic view of mountains, trees, lakes and wild animals. The refraction of mountain on the lake was like art.  It was so peaceful and refreshing.

Canada - Vancouver

I travelled across Canada when I was 20’s. It was my most enjoyable and memorable trip.  First, I flew to Vancouver and stayed there for three month.  Downtown Vancouver was smaller than I thought. But I impressed about beautiful beach and well organized big park. With the approaching winter, I started felt boring because it was raining almost every day.  So I decided leave Vancouver and headed for Banff, Alberta by bus. Eventhough it took about thirteen hours, I was excited because it was my first time to travel with long-distance coach. To be honest, I was not really interested in mountains since I grew up near the ocean. I just decided to go there since I'm in Canada. However, the nature of the Canadian Rocky Mountain parks has changed my opinion 180 degrees.  I was amazed to see beautiful mountain landscapes, lakes, waterfalls and glaciers. I thought that I haven’t seen anything so beautiful before.

Paper towels

Our home, my challenge now is that reducing the consumption of paper towels.  My husband is the biggest user of the paper towels.  One day, I asked him try using less paper towels because they cost a lot and not good for the environment.  He said that “Sharing hand towels are not healthy that’s why I’m using paper towels.  My first priority is our health, not an environment.”  I thought what he saying makes sense, too.   I decided to put a pile of clean hand towels in the bathroom, so we can use a new hand towels every time.  I’ll see how this thing goes.   

Paid plastic shopping bag

To reduce garbage and protect the environment, my good idea is to charge on shopping plastic bags by law. I believe it could lead to a huge reduction in resource consumption.  I have been concerned about giving away so many plastic bags at a supermarket.  I was always worried about the most people may be just throwing them in the garbage after unbaged.  If the shopping bags are not free, many people would start to use recycle shopping bags.

The old navy was giving away to the customer a free recycle bags when you shop during a sale. I thought it is good idea to attract customers and it is helping to raise awareness of environmental concerns.  I hope many businesses come up with this kind of earth-friendly ideas.

Recycle separation

Since I am learning environmental issue in my class, this week’s my Theme is what we can do about our environment.  I think that recycle situation is depending on the area you live.  I live in a condo in Norwalk and our recycle bins are sorted by “bottles and cans only”, “papers only” and “cardboards”.   That’s only choice we have.  When I separating recycle garbage, I always stuck with what to do with plastic containers.  There are many kinds of recyclable plastic package.   I believe that burning plastic will generate harmful substances to the atmosphere.   May be there is a guideline but I have never seen?   My opinion is that the city should announce to the people aggressively about guideline of separating recycle garbage, so people will become more conscious bout recycling. 

My first Peapod delivery

Last week was my nightmare.   My whole family got a flu!!  I decide to order foods by Peapod since no one can get out of bed.   Thank god we have this great service!  Delivery fee which $9.95 is not so bad.  It was hard to go on the computer with headache and fever but there was no other way to feed my family, I thought.  Peapod delivery came next day at 8:00am.  It was earlier than I expected.  Good service!!  But when I opened shopping bags, I was disappointed.  I ordered 5 pieces of Bananas, but there was whole bunch of Bananas.  The ground beef was too old and smelly.  The wrong amount was charged for ground pork which was $10.99, instead of real price of $2.99.  Finally, I had to go buy dinner. Are we just unlucky?  At least, I learned that I should not buy meats through Peapod delivery.

Valentain's Day

Today is Valentain's Day.  In America, both men and women exchange gifts on Valentain's day.  However, in my country, it is a big day for women to confess their love to men they like.  Another interesting custom on Valentain's day is "giri-choco".  It is obligation Valentain's chocolate for men's co-workers, bosses and friends.  I did not like this.  When I was working in my counrty, I used to buy many chocolate for my co-workers and bosses because it was like part of women's job in the office.  We had to make sure everybody gets one because many men will dissappoint if they didn't receive one.  Even though, they knew it is only giri-choco.  Many women think this custon would dissapear.  Do you have any interesting Valentain's custom in your country?