My Skiing Experience

Summer was very hot and long this year, and at the end you probably had enough of this hot weather and were wondering when winter will come. By the end of August most people who like to ski couldn’t wait for winter. Well, I have some good news for you: winter has finally arrived! Hopefully, you have your winter equipment ready and can head right to the slopes. In Canada winter is usually quite long and cold, but that makes this country a perfect destination for skiers.

I learned skiing in Quebec (Le Massif), 7 years ago, when I was visiting my boyfriend (at that time, now my husband), who, by the way, taught me how to ski. It turned out, I was pretty good at it and I learned quickly. I never expected that I will enjoy skiing so much. I’m still afraid of the speed and I have to be in control, but I like it very much. Each year we try to go at least once on a longer ski trip and on weekends we usually go for night skiing to one of the resorts nearby.

I can definitely recommend Mont Tremblant and Le Massif in Quebec, and Blue Mountain and Mount St. Louis in Ontario. But if you’re already quite good at skiing, it’s good to visit bigger mountains, like Sunshine or Lake Louise in the Rockies. I also had a chance to ski on some of the nicest slopes in Europe (France and Austria). The best place I’ve ever been to was Meribel in France. It’s in the middle of the region called the Three Valleys. You can ski there for the whole week and be on different ski trails each day. And you get to see Mont Blanc, one of the highest mountains in the world.

For me skiing became the best way to survive winter. On the slopes, especially when the weather is nice and the sun is shining, you get so much energy that those dark and short winter days don’t seem so bad after all. If you haven’t tried skiing yet, maybe this year will be your first chance to experience this great winter sport. I hope you do, because skiing might change your attitude towards winter in Canada.

Here are some useful links:

Le Massif: http://www.lemassif.com/en/accueil

Mont Tremblant: http://www.tremblant.ca/index.htm

Mount St. Louis: http://www.mslm.on.ca/

Blue Mountain: http://www.bluemountain.ca/

Lake Louise and Sunshine, Banff: http://www.skibig3.com/

The Three Valleys, France: http://www.les3vallees.com/ski/ski-resort-france.html

My Financial Experience

Book summary

Title: The Total Money Makeover

Author: Dave Ramsey

Place of publication: Nashville, Tennessee

Date of publication: 2003

Publishers name: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

No. of pages: 240

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is about creating a reasonable plan for getting out of debt and starting to save for different purposes.

The Total Money Makeover is a financial plan that consists of several steps. These steps should be followed precisely in the order they are presented. Otherwise, the result might be not exactly as expected. Here are the steps and their short description:

1.       Save $1,000.00 for your emergency budget and do it as fast as you possibly can. Only if you have an emergency fund will you not get into more debt if something unexpected happens. But you can only use this fund for emergencies!

2.       Start paying off your debt by saving every possible cent and putting it towards your smallest debt first. Begin with the smallest debt, because it will be the easiest to get rid of and will fire you up to work harder and to pay off more of your debts. You should make a list of all of your debts, starting from the smallest (the interest doesn’t matter).

3.       Finish building the emergency fund. A real emergency fund should be able to cover 3 to 6 months of expenses. Depending on the risk in somebody’s life, it’s a personal decision whether a 3-month or 6-month emergency fund is necessary.

4.       Maximize your retirement investments by putting 15% of before-tax gross income annually towards your RRSP. The author suggests to invest 15% and to learn more about investing so you could make more knowledgeable decisions.

5.       Save for your children’s education in the RESP. It is the best you can do for your kids and for yourself. If you save money for your children’s education, the government will add some money to it, so it’s really worth it.

6.       Pay off the home mortgage. This should take you not more than 15 years and after you have paid off other debts, you should be able to pay much more towards your mortgage every month.

7.       After you have gotten rid of all your financial burdens, you live debt-free and all you have to do is to invest and multiply your money. Don’t forget to have some fun and to share your money with other people, because otherwise you might become a slave to money.

I personally like this book and I think it’s very convincing because the author gives many examples of people who managed to get through the Total Money Makeover and had their lives changed. I can recommend it to anyone who might be in debt and wants to get out of it and live better. It might be especially useful for newcomers who are very often lost in the new reality and are tempted by all the special offers, and end up with accumulating debt. This book will help you realize what is really important in life and that it is possible to build your new life without getting into debt.

The Pumpkin Experience

Fall is just around the corner and so is the pumpkin season. In my home country, Poland, pumpkins are not as popular as here, in Canada. In Ontario, from September to November, you can find pumpkins in almost every store, in every farmers market and on many fields across the province. Pumpkins come in different shapes and are used as fall decorations, as ingredients for many seasonal recipes and, of course, as jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween.

Today I’d like to share with you one my favourite pumpkin recipes: pumpkin soup. It is delicious and will warm you up on a cold autumn or winter day. My advice is to freeze some of the pulp and you can use it later, after the pumpkin season is over. Here’s the recipe. Bon appetit!

PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pumpkin (fresh or frozen)

• 1 onion

• 2 carrots

• 3 1/3 cup vegetable broth

• juice from 1 orange

• 1 tbsp. butter

• ginger

• 1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk

• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

• coriander

• salt and pepper

Now it's time to get to work!
1) Preheat oil.
2) Add onion, pumpkin, butter, carrot, a little bit of ginger and juice from 1/2 orange.
3) Cook everything for about 5 min.
4) Add vegetable broth and boil for another 15 min.
5) Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix it all with a hand blender until smooth and cook for another 4 min.
6) Sprinkle on some coriander, and add salt and pepper to taste.

The "Buble" Experience

My name is Justyna and I’m from Poland. I came to Canada 4 years ago. I got married to a wonderful man, Damian, and nine months ago I gave birth to our first child, a boy named Christian.

I love music. I’ve always loved music. My parents tell me I needed a small radio in my crib when I was a baby. My husband shares my passion for music and once in a while we like going to concerts. So far, we have seen Chris Botti, Leonard Cohen, The Police, Sarah Brightman and now Michael Buble.

Tickets to Michael Buble’s concert were a gift from my husband for my birthday. Since my birthday was back in April, I had to wait four months to "see" my gift but it was worth it.

The concert started at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010, in the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. We managed to get there, struggling with quite heavy traffic, shortly after 8:00 p.m. Luckily for us, there was another band singing before him, and we could still get some drinks and take our places just in time for the show Michael Buble prepared for his mainly female fans.

I must confess the concert was great: good music and lots of laughter. It turned out Michael Buble is not only a very good singer, but he also likes to entertain his audience by telling jokes, funny stories and imitating celebrities. I had a wonderful time and I’d definitely like to see him again in a couple of years.

If you like music of a specific singer or a band, going to their concert can give you a new musical experience. My advice for you would be to prepare a good camera, a pair of binoculars (especially if your seats are far from the stage) and maybe a CD, just in case you are lucky enough to get an autograph. But, most importantly, have lots of fun, because that’s what it’s all about!