At the optician

Our host Myra is an optometric assistant. She took us to work to show us some of the tests that are done in an eye exam. Here, she checks Hans' eyes with an auto-refractor to see if he needs a prescription for eyeglasses.

 Then she took photos of the inside of Hans' eyes with a retinal camera. Paul got to see what it looks like from Myra's side of the instrument.

The OCT gives the optometrist an in-depth look at the inside structures of the eye. We like the fact the instrument is made by Zeiss, a German company.

This is one of the ways to test for colour deficiency. What number do you see? I see 97 and 45.

This is another version of the colour deficiency test. I put all the disks in the correct order, so we know I have normal colour vision.

This is a test to check for binocular vision, or the ability to see 3D. You have to wear special glasses for the test, but they were too big for me to wear.

The phoropter is the instrument that helps the optometrist determine a patient's eyeglass prescription. Luckily I don't need eyeglasses!

 Look at all the trial lenses that the optometrist uses to test different eyeglass powers in front of patients' eyes.

 This instrument is used for the slit lamp exam where the optometrist checks for any signs of eye disease or injury. Everything looks good for Hans!

 Prisms like this are used to evaluate eyes that don't point straight ahead. But Myra showed Paul a neat optical trick that cut off Hans' head

 Paul thought the model of the eye was pretty interesting and went in for a closer look.

 We learned how to tell if a contact lens is inside out.

While Myra worked, we read a textbook about eyecare. It was very interesting to learn about eye exams. Hans' eye exam is done. Paul will get his eyes checked later on today, and we will see if he needs eyeglasses.

A day at tiny land

  "Paul, what are we doing waiting here?" "Myra says she has something fun planned Hans."

 It's a train ride! Our host got us tickets to ride the Northern Alberta Railway.

 Northern Alberta Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway used to be vital in moving people and goods across Western Canada. Here we are traveling with very important goods for Myra's work.

 After the train ride, we explored the local scenery.

 Grain elevators like this used to be a common sight across the Canadian Prairies. Farmers would sell their grain to the wheat pool for storage and distribution. Modern grain elevators are made of steel and concrete.

 We wanted to skate with our new friends, but we forgot our skates back home in Germany!

So we watched the skaters and took care of their very friendly dogs.

We climbed up the hill and tobogganed back down a few times.

 Hans found a Volkswagon Beetle that he wanted to drive.

 Paul preferred the convertible even though it is -24.0°C right now!

 We even found an old gas station to fill up our cars.

 A couple of nice strangers showed us where to find the general store, so we bought supplies for hot chocolate. It is so cold outside!

And we spent the afternoon with the nice skaters that we met. We drank hot chocolate at their home and shared stories about Canada and Germany.

On the way to Edmonton

Today we drove from Calgary to Edmonton, where our host lives. We enjoyed seeing how flat the Canadian Prairies are. And so much snow!

After 3 1/2 hours, we made it to Myra's house. She made some hot tea to warm us up before we headed to bed.

Boxing Day

It turns out that Boxing Day is all about shopping! The day after Christmas, Canadians go out really early to shop and the stores have huge discounts to bring people into their stores.

We were amazed with all the crowds of people who were out just a day after receiving Christmas presents!

And the line ups to get into some store were crazy long! Luckily Myra didn't want to go in those stores.

We thought about buying this board game to help us learn more about Canada.

We watched people making these interesting candy apples. We don't think we could tackle the double candy apple snowman!

These boots are styled like the Inuit kamiks or mukluks. They look like they would be very warm for the cold Canadian winters.

We got tired of walking around such a big shopping mall so we hitched a ride on this horse.

All the shopping made us hungry so Myra got us a Canadian snack called poutine. Originally from the province of Quebec, it has French fries, cheese curds, and gravy.

The three of us got bored with the shopping so Myra introduced us to some Canadian wildlife that happened to be in the mall. This brown bear was awfully mean.

This deer was much friendlier than the bear.

We found a hunting store with lots of animals to play with!

These moose were huge! We'll make sure we don't get them riled up.

We met a very tall polar bear.

We found that this black bear was much nicer than the brown bear.

Ummm, Hans? Are wolves friendly?

Paul told Myra that he caught a huge fish like this once! Hans just laughed!

We couldn't decide if we wanted to hang out with this bison or take a ride on the ATV behind him.

This bull must get awfully cold waiting out here to greet shoppers.

Well, that was enough shopping for us! We are ready for nap time. See you all later.

Christmas dinner

 Wow! There was so much food for Christmas dinner. This is lechon kawali, fried pork belly. It's a popular dish at Filipino potluck dinners.

 This is lumpia shanghai, fried spring rolls. It's one of Myra's favourite foods so we tried it, and we agree it's quite yummy.

 There is always a fish entrée at a Filipino potluck dinner. "Look how huge those fish are, Paul!" "I don't think I can eat all of that, Hans!"

 This dish is called Bicol Express. It's a stew with pork, coconut milk, shrimp paste, garlic, and long chilies. We thought it was very spicy, but Myra said this was a very mild version. We can't imagine what the spicy version would taste like!

 One of the desserts was called bibingka. It's a rice cake with cheese and a piece of salted duck egg on top. The cake was tasty, but the salted egg was a little odd.

Oh, we are so full! That was a great dinner. It is amazing that we are in Canada, but we got to learn a bit about Filipino culture. Myra says that's the great thing about living in Canada. Everyone can share their cultures and traditions. We are off to bed. We are going to experience something called "Boxing Day" tomorrow, and we have to wake up very early for this. Merry Christmas, or as it is said in Tagalog "Maligayang Pasko"!