Leisure Programs in Saskatoon

                                                          Abhinav in Swimming session

                                                      Abhinav with  his instructor Raechel

                                   
                                                             Vow! I am cool!


 Swimming is so much liked by the children.
There is a variety of fitness, recreation,and water safety programs in Saskatoon. Leisure centers include Cosmo Civic center, Harry Bajley Aquatic center, Lakewood Civic Center, Lawson Civic Center, Saskatchewan Field House, Shaw Center and Fitness Circuit  And Terry Fox Track.
       Leisure programs are in full swing during the summer months of August to September. Since Saskatoon is dipped in Winter for the remaining nine months, people really enjoy a lot by involving in several kind of activities that suit to their requirements.
Fitness classes are offered in all these centers.
Fitness classes are an attraction to children,  adolescents, adults and elders. There are five types of fitness classes. They are Smart start beginner fitness class, Intermediate fitness class, Advanced fitness class, Fit over 50 fitness class and Gentle fitness class..

Smart start beginner fitness class is designed for those who have not participated in fitness class but would like to have a new start.
Intermediate fitness class is designed for those who wish to progress from beginner class.
Advanced fitness class is designed for those with previous fitness experience who want a serious work out.
Fit over 50 fitness class is for adults 50 and over who want to maintain fitness and stay independent.
Gentle fitness class is made for older adults looking for a slower pace or persons with limited mobility.

One can purchase leisure card which provides unlimited access to leisure centers and four outdoor pools, and Cosmo Skating rink. It is the best admission option for customers who visit more than two times per week.

I accompanied Abhinav for his leisure sessions. After his class, we visit the library, spent time to check out books.

    

The university of Saskatchewan

Founded in 1907, modeled on the American State University system, University of Saskatchewan is one of the very famous Canadian  Public Research Universities that stands as Prairie university. Although I am in the discipline of Psychology, I was amazingly attracted to the discipline of agriculture. The college of Agriculture and Bio resources is a faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. It has an annual budget of $ 38 million. Every year approximately one thousand students enroll for its programs that include Agricultural and Bio resource Engineering (ABE), Agricultural Economics (AGEC), Agricculture (AGRC), Agronomy (AGRN), Animal Science ( ANSC), Environmental Science (EVSC), Food and Applied Micro Biological Science (FAMS), Indigenous People resource Management (IPRM),  Large Animal Clinical Sciences (VLAC), Plant Sciences(PLSC), and Soil Science (SLSC).

Why am I attracted to this faculty? I asked myself. I was born in the village of Karunagappally in Kerala in India. I lived there until I was seven years with my parents. I went to our farmland with the workers just one or two times. But the memory is even now so live. I saw hundreds of agricultural laborers working on farm land including our land. I remembered the folk song they sung while spreading the seeds or manuring the field. " Manam Thelinjallo Elayya, Elayya". It was a KPAC theater song that had aroused the fighting spirit among the farmers community during the struggle for seeking the right to land.  Later in my life, I studied in different universities in India and in the California State University in the USA. I worked in a very famous university called the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala in India and retired as a Professor. I have not seen until now hundreds of students as agricultural laborers in 250 acres of their farm land involved in experiential learning in their field of study! The result is also amazing. They actively participate in the country's production process.
I thought of Kerala- my home land. Now we can see either factory buildings or multi level residential apartments in the place of farm land. Industries replaced agriculture. To generate electricity, we destroy the ecological balance. We destroy forests without any delicacy. Monsoon season eclipsed leaving us to the mercy of the scorching Sun. Deadly diseases are promoted through the use of chemicals as preservatives on imported and indigenous vegetables and fruits. Also promoted is pharmaceutical business!
Why can't we observe the experiential farm learning of the  the Saskatchewan University? Why can't we lease sufficient acres of land that can be used for farming to universities to promote agricultural study so that the energy of the youth can be fruitfully directed to the country's production process? Such serious thoughts flashed in me. I consoled myself. I am a psychologist. Let me concentrate only to self esteem!

     A day after, I went to the Department of Agriculture. I met Jayakrishnan and Divya, both from Kerala, the former doing his research work  in the Doctoral program and the latter in the Masters program in this Department. I met Mridula, wife of Jayakrishnan who is in the  department of Veterinary Science.  They promised me to show horticulture garden. I am sure to visit it soon.  
  

City of Prince Albert

   Prince Albert is the third largest city in Saskatchewan. It is situated near the center of the province.on the banks of the North Saskatchewan river. The city touches the border of Saskatoon from  its northern side. Initially, I  was under the impression that the city was named in remembrance of a prince named Albert who probably would have lived in Saskatchewan. But amazingly I realized that Prince Albert is an American brand of Tobacco introduced by the Revnolds Tobacco Company in 1907. Prince Albert is known as the Gate way to North as it is the last major center along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan. Prince Albert national parks are located 51 kilometers north of the city. Prince is lucky to hold a huge wealth of lakes, forest and wildlife.
                                                      In front of Prince Albert Municipality

                                           

                                              Art Museum near the Municipality

                                              Preserving the memory of Those who were eternally on board for the cause of Canada at the Municipality

 The city lies on the transition zone between the Aspen Park Land and Boreal Forest Biomes. Prince Albert is bordered by the Municipality of Prince Albert NO.461 and the Rural Municipality of Buck Land No. 491. We had a tour to Prince Albert.  I was attracted  to the Prince Albert Correctional Center.    

DELTA BESS BOROUGH - The oldest and the best hotel in Saskatoon

Delta Bess Borough is a grand hotel that adds to the classic beauty of Saskatoon. It is positioned at the heart of Saskatoon which is just a walking distance from St. Johns Anglican Cathedral, Meewasin Valley Interpretive Center, Midtown Plaza and the Third Avenue United Church. This eco-friendly hotel is an attraction to tourists all over the world.  Bess Borough is surrounded by five acres of luxuriant garden. We wandered along the gardens, walked on the banks of the South Saskatchewan river, and soaked in the architectural charm of Delta Bess Borough. My son explained to me that Bess Borough was originally built as a railway hotel. But in 1935, it was reopened as Bess Borough. The first registered guest was Horace N. Stoven. Bess Borough has 225  elegantly decorated rooms. It provides a perfect ambiance for the next romantic or /and family or business get together!    

                                                    We are at hte backof Bess Borough

                                                        Delta Bess Borough

Taste of Saskatchewan

    I, along with Rajesh, Lakshmi, and Abhinav in a very sunny evening went to attend the Taste of Saskatchewan, which is a mega food festival attended by several of the Saskatoonians to experiment with so many different tastes! We initially bought tokens and slowly walked around to see the variety of food displayed in food stalls. We exchanged tokens for food and drinks according to our tastes.

                                          Saskatoon Berry Pie was very tasty.

                                          Tents were temporarily built to accommodate customers.

                                           Food festival was energized by musicians.  

Community Farmers Market in Saskatoon

                                                                FARMERS MARKET

Wall Mart and Lobloas  are usually the attraction for shoppers at Saskatoon to buy most of the house hold products including vegetables, although  Community Farmers Market is a safe place to buy organic vegetables. CFM runs on Tuesday and Friday at the London Drugs 8th street and Thursday at the Peavey Mart on 51st street. Farmers market provides the best way to support local growers and their community to fetch reasonable price for their products.  It  tremendously helps those who rely on organic vegetables. Corn and potatoes seem to be the best selling products. Japenese squash is picking demand in the market. Look at Dixon. He earned an engineering degree, but decided to grow and sell vegetables to take proper place in the SIMPKINS lineage. Simpkins is a family lineage that is involved in the cultivation of vegetables and their sales.

                                                             Audrey and Dixon

Prince Albert Provincial Correctional Center

                            

Correctional center is part of the criminal justice system. It is said that during the formation of the province  of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon got one of the best university systems, Regina got the  administrative headship, and Prince Albert got the Provincial correctional centers. I could not visit the Prince Albert Correctional Center, but was keen on understanding its activities.

 Adult corrections are done here. The Adult Corrections branch administers sentences of less than two years handed down by the courts. The branch operates several correctional centres, correctional camps and community training residences around the province. It also administers programs and services for offenders serving sentences in the community. There is difference between federal and provincial adult correction centers. Offenders sentenced to a period in jail of less than two years serve their sentence in a provincial correctional center. Provincial centers for men are located in Prince Albert, Saskatoon, North Battleford and Regina. A provincial centre for women is located in Prince Albert. The province also operates ten reduced-custody facilities, including community training residences, an urban camp in Saskatoon and camps for low-risk offenders in northern Saskatchewan. Adult Corrections also administers a contract for the delivery of reduced-custody services delivered by the Prince Albert Grand Council Healing Lodge. Offenders sentenced to two years or more serve their sentence in a federal penitentiary. Federal penitentiaries in the province include the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert, the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon and the Okimaw Ochi Healing Lodge in Maple Creek for federally sentenced women. Offenders serving probation orders or conditional sentences in the community also fall under the responsibility of the provincial correctional system. Offenders who receive day or full parole are the responsibility of the federal system. 

University of Saskatchewan- The Priarie University in Canada

 I and my husband Rajeevan learnt to spell Saskatchewan after retreating in its spelling for a while.  We were happy to realize that Rajesh started to work at the University of Saskatchewan.

Now I am in Saskatchewan.

Every day in the early morning at 5 30 am, when I look through the glass window of the house at Kloppenberg, where they live, I could see the golden sun slowly rolling up far behind the neighboring houses. A little after, when we drive to the University of Saskatchewan, we pass through the golden field, grassland, housing complex, independent big houses and newly constructing buildings. The ride makes me feel so good. Abhinav asks his dad " music please"- to play music which makes the journey more pleasant.

The University of Saskatchewan is green in color and I saw many people wearing green color dress and shirts on Fridays. Its strongest department is the department of Agriculture. Rajesh showed more than 400 acres of  cultivated land that belonged to the  University. The students are the workers on the land. I wish Kerala to imitate the Saskatchewan student style of learning by doing in agriculture!

The university of Saskachewan has 71 Master degree and 48 doctoral degree programs. I realized that annual intake of students to these programs is around 2500. Arts and Sciences programs are pretty strong. Arts discipline includes Humanities, Social Sciences and Fine arts where as Science programs include Applied Sciences, Computational and Mathematical Sciences, Life sciences, Business and Education.  Masters and Ph D programs in Biochemistry, Applied Micro Biology,and Bio medical Engineering are also an attraction for foreign students.
There is wide scope for undergraduate studies in Engineering which is an attraction for Indian students.
The discipline of Humanities includes 16 programs like English, French, Latin, Modern languages, Philosophy, History, Religion and culture, Studio Art, Art History, and
Women and gender studies,
As I am a psychologist, I am attracted to the department of psychology.

Economic Environment of Saskatchewan

  Economic environment
 More than half of the people live in Saskatoon, which is the largest city in the province, and in REGINA which is the provincial capital of Saskatchewan. Energy, agriculture, and mining happen to be its major industries that fetch foreign exchange to the province. Forests constitute half of Saskatchewan and one third is farmland. Saskatchewan is spread with over 100,000 lakes, rivers, streams. Northern Saskatchewan has forests, marshes, lakes, rivers.Southern region is mainly flat prairie with some rolling hills and valleys. Saskatchewan grows over 54 percent of Canada’s wheat crop. Forestry is prominent in northern Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is rich in minerals like potash, uranium, coal, oil and natural gas. Saskatchewan is the world leader in the production of uranium. Saskatchewan is Canada’s second largest producer of oil next to Alberta. Saskatchewan is third largest producer of natural gas in Canada. Saskatchewan has more investors per capita than anywhere else in Canada. Western Canada’s only stagecoach robbery happened just south of Humboldt
The deadliest tornado in Canada struck in Regina in 1912. Saskatchewan is the site of North America’s oldest bird sanctuary. Potash is Saskatchewan’s official mineral, Saskatchewan is also the world’s largest producer and exporter of potash and is a multi-million dollar industry. Up until only a few years ago Saskatchewan’s total population was only estimated a one-million people. Saskatchewan is called “The Land of The Living Skies” because its citizens have the largest and longest un-interrupted view of the wind system known as the jet-stream which passes through Saskatchewan 73.6% of the year bringing with it large amounts of interesting cloud formations and ever changing weather systems. The 3 large cities in Saskatchewan are Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina.  But there are many towns in Saskatchewan.

 The ambiance of Saskatchewan is beautiful and is  enjoyable in all seasons.

Saskatchewan- The land of the living skies

The sky of Saskatchewan is amazingly exotic. It is a visual treat to anyone at any time.  Saskatchewan is a beautiful combination of forest tucked with river, the banks of which are cultivated in just 3 months for the requirements for internal use and for exporting purposes. The sky unfolds the biggest and beautiful umbrella with multi color  designs. The nature, no doubt has abundantly blessed Saskatchewan with natural beauty. If we are in Saskatchewan, we need not go to Trissur to enjoy the Thrissur pooram sky color combination that occurs after the pooram vedikkettu!  

Saskatchewan is known as the land of the living skies. The people of Saskatchewan have the largest and the longest uninterrupted view of the wind system known as the Jet- stream which passes through Saskatchewan 73.3% of the year bringing with it unbelievably beautiful cloud formations and ever changing weather system. Saskatchewan is the only province that does not switch to day light savings time in the summer. It is always seven hours behind GMT(Greenwich Mean Time).

Saskatchewan- A fast growing province

                       

                                               Economic environment
 More than half of the people live in Saskatoon, which is the largest city in the province, and in REGINA which is the provincial capital of Saskatchewan. Energy, agriculture, and mining happen to be its major industries that fetch foreign exchange to the province. Forests constitute half of Saskatchewan and one third is farmland. Saskatchewan is spread with over 100,000 lakes, rivers, streams. Northern Saskatchewan has forests, marshes, lakes, rivers.Southern region is mainly flat prairie with some rolling hills and valleys. Saskatchewan grows over 54 percent of Canada’s wheat crop. Forestry is prominent in northern Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is rich in minerals like potash, uranium, coal, oil and natural gas. Saskatchewan is the world leader in the production of uranium. Saskatchewan is Canada’s second largest producer of oil next to Alberta. Saskatchewan is third largest producer of natural gas in Canada. Saskatchewan has more investors per capita than anywhere else in Canada. Western Canada’s only stagecoach robbery happened just south of Humboldt
The deadliest tornado in Canada struck in Regina in 1912. Saskatchewan is the site of North America’s oldest bird sanctuary. Potash is Saskatchewan’s official mineral, Saskatchewan is also the world’s largest producer and exporter of potash and is a multi-million dollar industry. Up until only a few years ago Saskatchewan’s total population was only estimated a one-million people. Saskatchewan is called “The Land of The Living Skies” because its citizens have the largest and longest un-interrupted view of the wind system known as the jet-stream which passes through Saskatchewan 73.6% of the year bringing with it large amounts of interesting cloud formations and ever changing weather systems. The 3 large cities in Saskatchewan are Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina.  But there are many towns in Saskatchewan.

 The ambiance of Saskatchewan is beautiful and is  enjoyable in all seasons.

                                            At Prince Albert

                                         

Abhinav Rajesh Menon

                                         No one is in charge with ones happiness, except oneself! We are so happy in Saskatoon!

                                                       Abhinav and his grand mother


                               View from the window- his neighbour hood in Kloppenberg in Saskatoon at Saskatchewan              

SASKATOON - The land of ever shining sun in summer

                                    Saskatoon in Saskatchewan  - The land of  ever shining sun in Summer and never shining sun in winter.  Rivers with clear  water, forests, fresh air, friendly people, acres of agricultural land--  see and believe!    

 Saskatchewan is a Canadian province named after the Saskatchewan river meaning swift flowing river, which has a land area of 592,534 square kilometers. The presence of lakes, ponds, reservoirs and rivers make it beautiful. Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the  United states of Montana and North Dacota.  As of December 2013, the population of Saskatchewan was estimated at 1,114,170. Of the total population, 257,300 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon Regina, while 210,000 live in the provincial capital, Regina. Other major cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, and Notrh Battleford. Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, and first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774. It became a province in 1905. In the early 20th century, the province became a stronghold for Canadian democratic socialism.  Tommy Douglas, who was premier from 1944 to 1961, became the first social-democratic politician to be elected in North America. The province's economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy. Saskatchewan's current premier is Brad Wall. Saskatchewan summers are usually hot and dry. Temperature  reaches from 15 C (60 F) in May to the mid-30s C (90-95 F) in July and August. Nights tend to be cool.  Sometimes temperature  reaches above 38 °C (100 °F) during the day. Winters are usually bitterly cold reaching  sometime  to even -40c. Saskatchewan is in Central standard time. Saskatchewan is the only province that does not switch to daylight savings time in the summer and is seven hours behind Greenwitch Mean Time(GMT). Thus, extreme climate is a reality for the Saskatchewans. Saskatchewan summer is very unique. " Saskatoon shines"  is an encrypted pillar I see when ever I travel from Ever Green housing complex to the university of Saskatchewan in the city of Saskatoon. 

I arrived on the 8th of July  2015 from India via Frankfurt and Toronto to Saskatoon. I like flight travel a lot. Nineteen hours in the aircraft with a lay over time of 5 hours at the Frankfurt airport and an Olympic run to catch the last flight from Toronto as the last passenger, where by all means challenging to me, although I managed to get tucked in the Toronto- Saskatchewan  flight! When I reached Toronto I  wished my journey ended there. 

  I traveled another three and half hours to reach Saskatoon. Abhinav, my grandson along with his dad Rajesh and mom Lakshmi  were eagerly waiting outside the airport to receive me. It was 12 35 am.The dawn of the new day was beautiful specially because of the extra large moon on the blue sky, blossoming in its warmth to receive the new guest of Saskatoon.