Day 33 - U of A

Hello friends, today I made it to Edmonton to visit the University of Alberta (U of A), and I have to say that there is a trend among the Alberta schools of being huge and easy to get lost in.

I met up with the VP External of U of A's EngSoc, Reuban, who was nice enough to show me around their campus. I learned a lot about U of A today, but the biggest thing that blew me away was the amount of student study space that is available on their campus. Every school I've visited (Waterloo especially) has always struggled when it comes to study space, so I was happy to see that U of A has an abundance of it. All of the tables in the Engineering buildings even have the Engineering logo embossed on the table, which I thought was pretty cool. Their main building is the Engineering Teaching and Learning Centre (ETLC), but they also have a building for each of their major Engineering programs (some schools are lucky to have an Engineering building, period). The facilities they have to offer their students in terms of design work and hands on experience are also off the charts, so I was very impressed. Reuban took me all around their campus, and I was in awe of just how big it actually was. Fun fact: They have a residence for international students that is simultaneously a mall; it's called HUB Mall, and all the residence rooms overlook the stores and restaurants in the mall.

There were a lot of bear statues everywhere, and a lot of art commemorating the indigenous population. At one point on our tour, we stopped by their EngSoc office and I got to meet a bunch of the EngSoc Exec, all of which were really nice. He even opened up the Geer Store (their merchandise shop) and gave me a bunch of school swag, which was awesome of him! We then went on an adventure to find their school sign, and it was honestly so far away from their Engineering buildings that we had to drive to it (but we found it, which was the important part). After we finished up, Reuban had to leave, and so I ended up finding my way back to the EngSoc office and hanging out with the Execs. A few of them had to leave, but then the rest of us went our for dinner at a nice pasta place called "Chianti". Overall a pretty low-key day in Edmonton, but tomorrow I'll be heading over to the West Edmonton Mall, which is the largest mall in North America. Super excited!

U of A: www.instagram.com/p/BjgvsOilvOh