I put a ring on it!

No, it is not an engagement ring nor a promise ring, guys!

It’s a wedding ring.

I am married to engineering…

Canadian has The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer where future engineering graduates that have fulfilled all the requirements, receive an Iron ring as a symbol of obligation to the profession. It was a special, private ceremony and it was definitely an honour to be part of it. The ceremony procedures are not to be disclosed as it is a ‘secret’ and limited to the knowledge of participating engineers only. Therefore, I cannot share the details. :P

However, I can say that I am one step closer to graduating! InshaAllah :3

Skating Experience

Rideau Canal is the largest skating rink in the world.

This year, Rideau Canal broke its past record of the longest consecutive days open. It was Day 57 yesterday and I took it as a sign that I should go skating on it at least once before I return for good.

And so I did‼ I didn’t skate all the way (it’s 7.8 km long) but 3.3 km was good enough for me. *pats self*

It was obvious that we were newbies that sometimes, locals said hi to us and asked how we were doing and feeling. They also gave us compliments and words of encouragement along the way: “Good job, girls!”, “You’re doing good!”, “You can do it!”. At one point, a Canadian man stopped to show us a ‘quick lesson’ on how to skate. :')

Ah, I’m gonna miss these nice people.

At the end of the day, a maple taffy was well-deserved. :3

Summer Trip Travelog: Day 4 - Belfast Main Attractions

We only had one full day in Belfast.

In order to ensure that we were able to see as many attractions as possible in one day, we booked a tour with Allens Coastway Tour which costed us around £16 per person. Our tour guide on that day was very friendly and entertaining. I can’t remember his name though. I wish I had written this down somewhere but I didn’t… It was not Allen for sure.

The first place that we visited was Carrickfergus Castle. We were given around half an hour to walk around the area. Given the limited time, we didn’t get to tour inside and only managed to take a few pictures with the castle as the background.

As we were touring on bus, we got to see Antrim coast road. I would say that it was one of the best landscape view I have ever seen so far.

The next stop was Carrick A Rede rope bridge. This was one of my favourite place on that day. The 2 km walk was breathtaking.

The rope bridge itself was a thrill. Let’s just say walking on planks hanging on a rope suspended 100 feet above sea level with no safety net was not my thing. The wind on that day was crazy too‼ I was holding onto a rope that was angled at 35° because of the wind and I am definitely not exaggerating. However, the view that we got when we reached the other side was worth the risk (okay, maybe I was exaggerating, a bit). I could sit there all day (partly because I didn't want to cross the bridge again) and admire the vast seascape.

Next was a lunch stop at The Giants Causeway Café. We ate our packed lunch there with Uncle Boy, a Filipino who lived in US that was on vacation. He was a bit too friendly but that’s another story to tell. :P

We then had a quick stop at Bushmills whiskey distillery because why not? Ironically, we went to the washroom and took our wudu’ there and ended up being the last group to get on the bus…which raised the question “did you girls buy many stuff?” HEH. We were actually busy taking pictures with the red phone booth outside...

The second last stop was Dunluce Castle. We stopped there for a photo op.

Our last stop was the main attraction of the tour - The Giants Causeway. I love the myth behind it; two giants trying to fight with each other and the causeway was one of the giant’s doing to reach the other giant. It had a hilarious ending too (read more of the story here).

We returned to the city centre around 7:00 pm and continued to wander around before returning to Tiqa's house. I was very satisfied with the tour. I saw gorgeous views, experienced wonderful stuff and learnt a lot of random things along the way. It is definitely something I would recommend to other people because the trip itself was priceless!

Summer Trip Travelog: Day 3 - Queen's University of Belfast

First meetings are usually awkward.

However, we took off quite well with Tiqa as she was very welcoming and friendly to us. After we have settled down for a bit at her house, she offered to take us for a tour of her university which was only a few minutes away by foot.

I study abroad but my university is not exactly glorious. It is relatively new so it doesn’t really own any sort of legacy or legends (well, none that I know of). Old universities on the other hand, usually have their own traditions and their buildings are always so majestic and pretty because of their history (to me at least). But I love my university nonetheless. :P

After the tour, we went for lunch slash dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I have never eaten Mexican food before other than tortilla chips (does that count, and is it even Mexican?!) so it was new to me. Instead of ordering buritto, which is the typical thing people would order, I ordered chicken quesadilla. I had it with mango salsa and ooh, it was finger lickin’ good!

I didn't take a picture of my food but here's a picture of Ezzah's burrito.

Ski Trip

What is winter without a ski trip?

I went on one at Mont Edelweiss last Saturday. Okay, I didn’t exactly go skiing. The event was named such way because the main purpose was to ski or snowboard but I have to admit that I am pretty lame because, neither was on my to-do list at that moment.

I went tubing instead.

Tubing is the least adventurous winter sport. I don’t even know if it deserved to be called a sport… A higher altitude and speed were involved but all you have to do is sit in this huge tire and rely on gravity to slide down the slope. No balance or body movement or coordination were needed. Essentially, you just have to have a butt. :P

I tried snowboarding last year but I failed terribly at that and I was in no mood to try hard this time around. This might be my last winter so passing this opportunity to play with snow was not an option to me. So sad about this fact! :(

When I went tubing in my first year, we had to get on the ski lift and then slide down the slopes with tires provided at the top of the hill. However, this time, we had to carry the huge tire by ourselves and this was indeed the most exhausting thing to do. It was such a workout!

A variety of sliding down options were available. You could choose to slide down alone or in groups. You could have a circle or a train formation. You could go down while spinning or no spinning. They also have slopes with various steepness. We tried every single one of them including the highest one. The slope was so steep, you could barely see anything from the top. Being the scaredy-cat that I am, I closed my eyes half of the time I was sliding down. -_-

When we were all too tired to get up the slopes, we sat at the foot of the slopes and chilled out (no pun intended) like nobody else’s business.