Calgary Trip 2017
WELCOME to my FIRST Learning Portfolio Post of the 2017-18 school year.
We just went to Calgary on a road trip for a week. And we learnt some stuff. Here goes:
We went places. Like, a lot of places, and we also ate a heap of food and slept in hotels and stuff… itinerary cue:
Link here:
The Itinerary
See, when you see it in writing it looks like we went to lots of places and ate food and stayed in hotels and stuff! Right?!
Well guess who’s here to tell you about it?
THATS RIGHT (unless you guessed someone else)
Me.
Now, this was a HUGE trip,
So I think I’m going to choose some of the best and most fun/educational places we went to that I found interesting and tell you about them… okay cool. Continue reading my friends!
So on Saturday we got up early and got to the bus and drove for a long time and then went to the Last Spike, and from there an epic adventure began.
The Last Spike at Craigellachie
Well let me just say…. Trains are cool.
At least Canadian ones are.
They’re transportation for not just humans, but resources, objects and animals.
Trains are part of a time in history that we (Canadians/Europeans) should both be absolutely disgusted by, and proud of.
See, in February 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was started.
The CPR was Canadas first transcontinental railway.
Its headquarters lay in Calgary Alberta (Canada… obviously).
We got to visit what is known as The Last Spike, where the last spike was driven into the CPR by one Sir Donald Smith.
He looked like this:
The last spike was driven on November 7th in 1885.
There was some awesome photo opportunities while we were on site.
For some reason the lighting was perfect for photos:
What was the learning experiences behind The Last Spike?
In the week that we were in Calgary we continued learning all about the CPR and the stories behind it.
Going to places like:
Glenbow Museum
Cave and Basin Nation Historical Site at Banff
The Haunted Village at Three Valley Gap
We learnt about artifacts!
So, we visited the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and learnt all about artifacts!
For one of the activities we were split into groups and given a box of artifacts from a specific place around the world.
The assignment was, choose one of the artifacts from the box (we got the Ukraine box) and try to make a story out of what you see.
We chose a tunic like shirt with some weird looking stains on it.
Some people said blood, some said red wine and some just thought they were random stains.
But we had to come up with a story for it.
And we did.
We came up with two.
One was about how the guy who owned the shirt was stabbed and bled to death (i think).
And the other was about how the guy who owned the shirt went out to go get ready for his anniversary with his wife who wasn’t very loyal to him. He came home with wine and cheese for a fancy dinner and found her with another guy. He got mad and threw the wine bottle at the guy, causing wine to splash everywhere and get on his fancy shirt. Causing it to stain and be there for us to look at many many many years later.
We learnt there’s a story about everything. And if you cant find or figure out what story is there, you make one up.
But what does the Glenbow have to do with the CPR?
Well, there was actually a section of the museum where you could walk through what the seating areas in the trains on the CPR would have looked like.
Unfortunately no photos were taken when I went through this amazing exhibit of the train. We got to sit in a cart like the passengers would have and learn about what it would have been like to ride the CPR when it first began.
There would be a HEAP of people sitting 3 to a seat on wooden seats in a cart with each other for 2-3 weeks at a time. No bathing, so they would all stink. And if you were a kid you would sit on your parents lap the whole time.
There was one bathroom, originally the toilet design was a bucket under a hole to sit on, however after spillage issues, they eventually cut holes in the bottom of the train and your waist would fall onto the tracks. The hole that you waisted in was big enough to fit a small child in, so if you were a kid you would have to be careful not to fall through.
There were pull down beds but they were expensive.
And they had no rails to keep you up so often thou would fall off.
Most people who bought them were “middle class” men and they often gave the beds to children in the end.
But that’s just the “not first class” seating area.
The first class people had CUSHIONS!
Woot woot!
The areas they sat in were fancier and nicer and were expensive as heck for those days.
And if you were “filthy rich” you could probably even buy a reasonable bed to sleep in.
But no one likes filthy rich white men and their snobby wives… these days.
I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT, TO THOSE OF YOU WHO USED TO WEAR TOP HATS, YOU’RE NOT COOL AND TOP HATS WOULD MAKE YOU WEIRD THESE DAYS!
So don’t be such snobs mmmkay? Kay thanks.
Cave and Basin National Historic Site at Banff
Ahhh smell that fresh sulphur air *inhales deeply* mmmmmmm.
I GOTTA SAY, it smelt bad at the beginning but I got used to it.
We went to Cave and Basin National Historic Site and Banff and it was cool!
We did a cool little tour thingie with this guy with a cool ponytail and a Mrs. Klausen like (fake) Scottish accent (at one point in the tour). He also did some acting and that was cool as well.
We got to meet Billy, a cool man who was friends with Frank who found a cave full of natural hot spring water… that smelt bad cause SULPHUR SMELLS BAD. Like rotten eggs.
But like… still! Natural warm water that would be worth MILLIONS!
Yea no. No money for Frank and Billy with THAT discovery. Sorry guys!
See, we were looking at all kinds of things at this cool historic site.
But we also learnt a lot.
Guess what?
Chicken Butt.
No but actually… Billy and Frank worked on the CPR. Originally.
Many people did, and many people died. Because the Rocky Mountains are crazy and filled with animals and cliffs and First Nations people who wanted those idiotic Europeans gone please.
First Nations people were/are one with nature, while the Europeans had the mindset that they were above nature. Nature was filled with resources like wood for houses and minerals and coal and ways to power the destruction of earth with global warming!
And when explorers and nosey people were sent to work on the CPR they would sometimes find things they thought they could make money off of.
And thats what happened with Frank.
He found these natural hot springs filled with “magical crystal” water and healing and… and no one actually cared.
They wanted gold not warm water.
They wanted materials for mining and ways to make money other then just working on the deadly train tracks through the Rockies.
The people back then wanted money, not nice natural water.
Not these days… we want a nice bath thanks and some cool looking rocks too.
Oh and caves make money cause “tourists love exploring caves”.
So to the people in history… we don’t even get to swim in those springs so you missed out on a cool opportunity we will never have. Idiots.
People would leave working on the CPR because they would find things they would think would make them millions but… Im sorry friends but a lot of you got nothing and waisted excitement and now you’re back to working on a railroad that made history but whatever that piece of false gold would have been better right?
Yep nope.
The Haunted Village at Three Valley Gap
Creepy old village filled with creepy old buildings and filled with creepy as heck stories.
But this lovely creepy village in Three Valley Gap (Revelstoke BC Canada) is also located so that THE CPR IS RIGHT THERE!
There is a theme here. The CPR is awesome so… yeah.
But a bit about the creepy haunted village,
Have you ever been to a heritage “ghost” town? Like, of you live in Vancouver, the Burnaby Village Museum?
It’s one of those.
It’s dark and scary and perfect for filming creepy videos for an assignment for a school trip during a field study trip to Calgary!
We made a really cool video.
Ever wanted to see Kai pretend to be a zombie?
Or Jessie kill someone?
Or me die?
Or Alivia fall over?
Or Lucas almost end the human race?
This video has ALL of that AND MORE!
The time set is current time.
Four friends are the last people on earth.
The Story
Many many years ago an unidentifiable illness took over the human race. It slowly spread from the small town it started in and took over the world.
There were some people who created an untested antidote and left it on earth in the town where the illness began. They evacuated earth and left the antidote behind.
Our characters arrive at the town with limited time to survive and a mission to find the antidote and survive.
When some of the hero’s get the illness and become zombies, two people die after a zombie attack and two people are left on earth. They fight for the antidote and another person dies. One person left on earth to be lonely for the rest of their life with their only person to talk to:
Siri.
“Hey Siri, you’ll never guess what joust happened” “what Jessie, did the world end?” “Almost” *screen fades to black*. -The Movie 2017
We are drama queens.
Heres the breakdown of human destruction:
Kai becomes a zombie
I kill Kai but get scratched in the process of grabbing the antidote that had managed to possess.
I become a zombie
Alivia kills me
Alivia and Jessie fight over the antidote
They get chased by zombie Lucas
Alivia falls and gets Jessie to kill her so Lucas doesn’t get the satisfaction of ending her
Jessie kills zombie Lucas for justice on the death of Alivia
Jessie walks off with Siri.
Ahhh what happens in a creepy town by the CPR
https://youtu.be/FH3ZZ8Rlp7k
BUT THATS NOT ALL!
Nopety nope nope!
There was a huge circular building filled with TRAINS!
And guess what! We got to look in some of them!
And the best part, one of the trains is where Mr. Pierre Trudeau… flipped the bird at people.
GOTTA LOVE THEM RUDE FRENCH/CANADIAN DUDES.
The idea of the prime minister of Canada fingering people from the back of a train is hugely entertaining.
We also went to some other cool places that aren’t as train and CPR and old people related.
Like the Bad Lands and Museum at Drumheller
And the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper
And the Enchanted Forest
And I’m even going to include some cool photos of Lake Luise.
So we went to the land of dinosaurs!
And we learnt about them as well.
First of all,
A dinosaur cannot fly.
It cannot swim.
And it has hips.
It is a land creature and the rest of them a messed up fish and birds.
I learnt all this at the Royal Tyrrell Museum that lays in Drumheller in the Bad Lands.
We went to Drumheller for the day and walked around the Royal Tyrrell museum learning all about prehistoric creatures.
So this is just an add on as I was writing this I realized that “prehistoric” is “Pre History”.
Anyways… continue reading.
I got some pretty cool photos of all kinds of dinosaurs.
For this trip we were assigned to make some videos. We ended up making 4. Welcome to the story behind number 2(/4) (number one was the zombie apocalypse one with the group at the haunted town).
We were assigned the following challenge:
“You have one hour to find a dinosaur and make a 1 minute video about a dinosaur that you find in the museum.
During this hour you must
Find a dinosaur
FIND a story about the dinosaur
Make a video
Edit the video
Add music
Hand it in
And the extra challenge:
You can’t do the same dinosaur as someone else.
Go”
So we all went and made our videos.
I chose the Gorgosaurus.
He was a uncomfortable looking thing who was found in a riverbed where the sands at the bottom of the river kept the bones of the creature safe from all harm.
If you wish to learn about the story of the Gorgosaurus, check out my video
We also went on a tour during our trip to Drumheller.
We hiked through the “Bad Lands”.
Why is it called the Bad Lands?
Well, it was a dangerous place. It IS a dangerous place.
– Hidden collapsible caves that if you stepped in the wrong spot can concave underneath you and take you down.
– Heat (its a dessert)
Imagine walking for days and days and days through the flat lands they call Alberta.
Then after days of exploration, you come across this rocky, cliff covered area full of like… snakes and stuff.
And suddenly these explorers are like “UGGG ANOTHER MILLION YEARS JOURNEY ACROSS THIS LAND I GUESS!”
Cause if you had been walking for ages, and you just look and suddenly you’re surrounded by hills and cliffs and rocks and difficult landscape, you’re gonna be like “arg this sucks” and think it’s bad.
Bad. Lands.
Lands that suck to travel over.
The Bad Lands were actually awesome.
Like they were really pretty and great for taking photos!
Here are some of the photos of the landscape that I took:
The Athabasca Glacier (Skywalk) at Jasper NP
I made another video here.
But I’ll explain the area first.
We went to a really cool glacier.
It was old and cold and icy and I think I am the only person who actually fell over and that’s embarrassing but oh well.
(I found out later that I wasn’t the only one to fall over so…. YAY)
Yeah so I slipped on a 3000 year old glacier and bruised my knee. I am now one with the ice.
The glacier has lost more than 1.5km of itself in the last 125 years.
Its about 6km in area and 90-300ft deep.
There are these hidden crevasses that have lead to the deaths of unprepared tourists in the past.
Actually a day or so before we visited the glacier one of the snow guides in training fell through the ice and spent an hour down there with cold water running on him and when he was finally rescued he was blue and was taken to the hospital… we don’t know what happened to him and we probably never will.
We went to the glacier, took some photos, and filled our water bottles up with some of the pure glacier water, which (as we found out on the drive back) has natural laxatives in it.
…
ANYWAYS
We also went on a skywalk!
This is where the video comes in.
Everyone was assigned to choose one destination during the trip, where would find a story and make a video about.
I chose the Glacier Skywalk.
I was all ready to go and find a story and make a video and then…
And then my phone ran out of storage after a few minutes of footage.
AHHHHHHH
I didn’t have my iPad with me either so…
So my friends came to the rescue.
Thanks Kailey for letting me use your phone for some of the photos and footage
And thanks Melanie for calming me down and stopping me from freaking out too much because
“We are only here once this is the only change you have to get footage and…”
I managed to get a story and enough footage to make a video.
The Story
Ok so have you ever heard of Trilobites?
They look like this
At least… their fossils do.
Trilobites are these creatures that existed even before dinosaurs.
They were like… huge bugs.
They had the best vision of any creature of their time and they had the first proper skeleton, like that do what would see in an animal today.
Learn more about the Trilobites of The Skywalk by watching the video!
BUT that actually isn’t my first draft.
Thats my second (good) copy of this video.
When we returned from our trip, we did a peer critique.
Where another classmate watched our video and told us some things that were good and some things we could change about the videos.
Mine for example, my first draft had HORRIBLE audio. The music was a million times too loud.
This was my first draft:
Nothing is perfect… but that’s probably the furthest thing from it audio wise.
The glacier was fun,
And a good learning experience.
Never don’t have a back up plan. Ever.
The Enchanted Forest is this really cool place full of characters and places based of children’s stories and nursery rhymes.
We got to see some cool… traumatizing characters made to look like the characters from our childhood.
PIGLET DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THAT OH MY GODS.
We made another video here, however we didn’t work out our time well enough and ended up having to cut it short for hand in and it didn’t end up the way we wanted it to.
My group was
Isabelle
Alivia
Jessie
And me
The Story
We made a story about some kids who fall into a magical forest where a wizard decided to burden them with the power to keep the stories from going wrong.
One of the characters doesn’t want to have that responsibility (me) and storms off. I end up deciding that as long as Im stuck in the Enchanted Forest I may as well cause some mischief.
The story follows Alivia and Jessie chasing me around trying to stop me from destroying the storytelling world.
In the end I get banished back to the real world without any powers.
We worked quickly and even though the video didn’t end up great, I still think we worked well as a team and that kind of is the whole point of making the video so…
PHOTOS
I took so many photos on this trip!
I feel like this would be the perfect place to share them.
So to conclude this LPP,
Thank you for reading about some of my favourite parts of our trip to Calgary and I hope you learnt a bit, I know I did.
I even learnt how to sleep with my head against a headache-causing bouncing bus window!
Anyways, thanks for reading and DON’T SING IN THE BATHROOMS.
Hehehe
