Day 28 - USask

Hello friends, today I made it to my last stop in Saskatchewan and the capital of the province, Saskatoon! Compared to most of the drives that I've made driving between cities on my trip, today's 2.5 hour drive from Regina flew by so quickly. First thing I did when I got to Saskatoon was go straight to the University of Saskatchewan (USask), I was really hyped to visit their campus after hearing so much about it.

Full disclosure, when I first saw the campus while driving around it in my car, I felt a bit underwhelmed. However, the second I got out of my car and started walking around, I was completely blown away by how massive and how beautiful their campus really is. There is a tremendous amount of green space, and there was a lot of wild life all over their campus that I had never seen in person before, which was really fascinating. The nice thing is that most buildings are named after exactly what they are (ex the Engineering building was called "Engineering Building"), which made it so much easier to find. They high a giant concrete cube with a big "E" carved out of it on all sides, which I thought was really cool. As I entered the Engineering building, I saw a sign that read "College of Engineering", which is interesting as I believe this is the only school that doesn't call it the "Faculty of Engineering". Anyways, I proceeded to walk around the building, and while doing so I saw a bunch of the swag that the Saskatoon Engineering Students' Society (SESS) has to offer, and I saw their Engineering lounge (which was quite cosy). Unfortunately the SESS Office itself was closed, but it was cool to get to see it from the outside.

After making my rounds through the Engineering building and seeing all the different facilities that were available to the students, I decided to spend another hour or so trying to see as much of the USask campus as I could. A lot of the buildings had very Gothic architecture, and the overall aesthetic of their campus was quite a sight to see. Only weird observation I made was that almost all the buildings were the same colour, so there's not much variety in that sense, but I don't think that takes too much away from the beauty of the campus. The USask school sign was actually quite a trek to get to as it was off campus and closer to the highway, but it was a really nice sign so it was worth it. I unfortunately didn't get to see everything because I was starting to get a bit tired and there was still so much to discover, but I definitely left with a very positive impression of USask.

After leaving campus, I drove to go meet up with Noah Hladun, who's kind enough to let me stay with him over the next two days while I'm here. It actually worked out really well because I am also friends with his roommates Shanleigh and Lori, so it's great getting to catch up with all of them. I hung out at home for a bit, and before I got too lazy I decided to head out and explore Saskatoon a bit more. I originally wanted to go to the Remai Modern, an art gallery situated on the South Saskatchewan River, but since it was closing shortly after I decided just to go for a walk by the river. I walked through a region by the river called River Landing and got some ice cream, made my way through Kiwanis Memorial Park and saw the Memorial Fountain of Youth (which was dedicated to those who gave their lives in WWII), and I walked around the Delta Bessborough Gardens and Friendship Park. While on my walk, I saw a lot of very intriguing art along the river bank ranging from graffiti, to really elaborate wind chimes, to structures built to signify friendships between Canada and other countries, to things celebrating indigenous people and their culture. I then went for a walk around the downtown area, and I don't know what it is but I really liked DT Saskatoon! There were a lot of really quirky things that made it feel very unique, even something as simple as a British Double-Decker Bus being converted into a food truck. 

After about 3 hours of walking, I got some food and made my way home. I've had a great time so far in Saskatoon, and tomorrow I'll hopefully get to see a bit more of it and spend some time with friends, so I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

USask: www.instagram.com/p/BjTowGTlKHV