Goodnight, Vancouver - October 2009

Fifteen months ago, I moved out to Vancouver. It was my first time there, except for a brief visit the month before, but I'd heard all sorts of good things about it, and I thought it was time I discovered a bit more of this country of mine. If all went well, I planned to stay there about a year, before either going home or moving on to another city. As it turned out, my time in Vancouver was variably successful, and I ended up staying well over a year. Of the fifteen months I was there, I worked for nine of them and was unemployed for the other six. The working months were an important growth experience for me, while the idle months were rather lonely and depressing. I enjoyed living in the city, but didn't fall in love with it the way I expected to. I'd been told before going there that Vancouver was a beautiful city, one of the best places in the whole world. It certainly has its strengths, but compared with my hometown of Ottawa, I'd say it's on par, nothing more. Let's see how the two cities stack up:

- Vancouver has the Aquarium and Science World; Ottawa has the Museum of Civilization, the Natural History Museum, and the War Museum.
- Vancouver has Bard on the Beach (a Shakespeare festival) in the summer; Ottawa has a load of music festivals.
- Vancouver has a swing dancing scene; so does Ottawa, and it's cheaper!
- Vancouver has mountains and ocean; Ottawa has hills and a river.
- Vancouver has mild weather all year round, including a lot of rain; Ottawa has four seasons, including bitterly cold winters and scorchingly hot summers.
- In Vancouver you can buy milk in returnable glass bottles; in Ottawa you can buy milk in convenient four-litre bags.
- Vancouver has Granville Island; Ottawa has the Byward Market.

Still, if people want to promote Vancouver as the best city in Canada, I don't feel the need to stop them. Those of us who live in Ottawa know it's a beautiful city, and we don't need anyone else to tell us so.

Things I will miss about Vancouver:

- Stanley Park: a vast nature park right next to the downtown!
- Granville Island: a great place to browse, if too expensive to shop.
- Grouse Mountain: a fun climb with a great view.
- My church: maybe a bit too liberal at times, but definitely a refreshing change from my much more conservative Ottawa church.
- AVEN: I don't know what the AVEN scene in Ottawa is like, but I got attached to the Vancouver community.
- Cheap, plentiful sushi: I hope I can find some in Ottawa!
- Bakery bread: I don't think I can go back to the regular kind.
- The Vancouver Central Library: one of the best features of downtown Vancouver, in contrast to Ottawa's cement cinderblock, which is a blight on the landscape.
- The Burrard Street Bridge and English Bay: my favourite view in the city.
- The blue of the ocean

At the end of September I moved out of my apartment – and, yes, back into the hostel. The next week was a transition period for me as I said goodbye to the city and wrapped up some loose ends. The first weekend of the month was Mid-Autumn Festival, and as I'd done last year I went to the Chinese classical garden where I sampled their moon cakes and listened to Chinese music. I also paid my first and only visit to Lighthouse Park in North Vancouver. I'd been meaning to go there for a while, but never got around to it. I'm glad I finally did, because it must have been one of the most beautiful places in Vancouver. If you're ever in the city, I recommend it.

The next week my mom arrived for a visit, and I moved out of the hostel and into a hotel with her. I spent the next week showing her around the city, going back to visit some of the best Vancouver locations, and eating way too much. On Thanksgiving Sunday we took a bus up to Whistler. As it turns out, Whistler is a pretty little town, but not very interesting unless you're into alpine sports. We did take a cable car up the mountain, though, where we had a lovely view of the scenery. When we got back to the city we stopped in a restaurant that was offering Thanksgiving dinners. Even though it wasn't home-made, it turned out to be a really good meal.

At the end of a week my mom flew home, but I had other plans. Ever since I'd come back from Hong Kong I'd had the idea of taking the train back from Vancouver to Ottawa. It would mean being stuck on a train without access to internet or a shower for days, but I thought it would be worth it for the chance to see more of the country. So that's what I decided to do. Once I'd seen my mom off, I went to the train station and checked in my luggage. For my last meal in Vancouver I decided to go out for sushi: veggie combo, eighteen pieces, for $7.40 (with tax). I bought a magazine special on Law & Order to read on the train. I went to the library to use the internet, and then walked back to the station in time to get my train. It turns out that the cross-country trains are rather nicer than regular trains: the seats are larger, with more leg-room, and they recline for sleeping. I was also lucky that there were very few people in my carriage, and I was able to spread my things across two seats. I got settled in, chewed through two-thirds of my magazine, and then drifted off to sleep as the train pulled away from Vancouver. I spent the next four days travelling across Canada.

Day 1: I wake up at dawn somewhere in central B.C. We're riding through a mist-shrouded, forested landscape. The only sounds are the rattle of the train and the low, melancholy ring of the wheels rubbing against the track. The whole scene is hauntingly beautiful.

I polish off the rest of my magazine, but I've still got a copy of The Economist, a book by Charles de Lint, and my entire X-Files collection, so I'm not worried. Around mid-morning we see our first mountains. We slow down to take pictures by something called Pyramid Falls, then again by Mount Robson, which is apparently the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

We cross over into Alberta during lunch. The conductor tells us to adjust our watches for Mountain Time, but my watch has never left Eastern Daylight Time, so all I have to do is stop compensating by an hour. Soon after, we stop in Jasper to stretch our legs. Jasper is a tiny town surrounded by mountains, and appears to exist entirely for tourism. I go for a walk, enjoying the scenery and the smell of clean, cold, dry winter air. Then I stop into a grocery store for snack food: rice cakes, oatmeal bars, and canned sardines (I've never had sardines before, but it turns out they're really nice.*) As we pull out of Jasper we pass a herd of caribou, and later on we pass what appear to be bighorn sheep, although I didn't even know we had those in Canada! I don't manage to get any pictures, unfortunately.

Day 2: I wake up just as we're leaving Saskatoon. I can tell we're in Saskatchewan because it's really flat; I'm actually surprised by how well the landscape is conforming to stereotypes. I adjust my thinking again for Central Time. The day is pretty dull, and I spend most of it reading and composing long-overdue blog entries. In the afternoon, the landscape becomes much more hilly and forested. We enter something called the Qu'Appelle Valley, and soon after, we're in Manitoba. That evening we stop in Winnipeg, but it's late, and there isn't much we can do except grab a snack and get back on the train.

Day 3: I've finally figured out how my reclining seat is supposed to work, but I've still slept fitfully for the third night in a row. When I wake up, my watch says 9:00, and this time I believe it. For the first time in days, the sun is out, and it lights up a landscape that seems to be all lakes and trees. This must be Ontario.

I'm thrilled to see the sun again, and the landscape is lovely, but by this time I'm getting seriously sick of the train. I'm especially tired of sitting down, sleeping badly, and not showering. We only get one short stop, in a small northern Ontario town, and I spend most of it walking up and down the platform. On the plus side, I'm half-way through my book and my blog's in pretty good shape.

Day 4: We pull into Toronto. I snap a picture of the C.N. Tower, grab a snack, collect my copious luggage, and board the train to Ottawa. Once I get home, I do three things I've been really looking forward to: taking a shower, eating a hot meal, and having a good night's sleep. In a bed. Horizontally.

All-in-all it was a somewhat uncomfortable experience, but worth it. I'll definitely have to go back and spend more time if I want to see central Canada properly, but at least I got a glimpse of it. I wouldn't do it again, but I'm definitely glad I did it this once.

In the news, Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. For… I'm not quite sure what, and neither is anyone else, apparently. Not that Obama doesn't seem like a swell guy, but if you're going to award what's probably the world's most prestigious honour to someone, you'd better have a darn good reason for doing so – and "giving people hope" doesn't really qualify in my opinion.

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

Frasier – Well, not this month, but over the past year I've seen almost every episode (94%, anyway). I remember not hating it in high school, but it turns out it's actually a really good show – at least for its first five seasons or so.

Books I've read this month:

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin – Pretty interesting true story about a man building schools in Pakistan.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan – Stories about Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. I appreciated all the references to Chinese culture, some of which I got, and some of which I didn't. I also found the characters surprisingly real.

* According to my mom, I did try sardines when I was a child – and hated them!

Hold On To That Feelin' - September 2009

The Labour Day weekend was my first free weekend in a month and a half. After my busy August, I decided that the best way to celebrate would be to spend the entire time doing nothing – or, more specifically, sitting in my room in front of my T.V. and watching a truly appalling amount of Star Trek. In three days I saw four of the movies (two of them for the first time) and eight episodes of the original series. Although I feel a strong, if grudging, affection for Next Generation and its sequels, I've always been quite antipathetic towards the original Star Trek, but the recent movie has given me a bit of an incentive to get into it. I'm now actually at a place where I can watch and enjoy it – much as one watches and enjoys Bugs Bunny cartoons, without ever taking them seriously.

At the beginning of the month my boss told me he would have to let me go at the end of September. That actually works quite well for me. I'd been planning to stay in Vancouver only as long as my job lasted, and once I knew it was ending, I started making plans to leave. I'm actually lucky that they kept me on this month. Enrolment has been quite low, and they've already let go most of the teachers they hired to help with the summer surge. Unfortunately, I lost the class I was teaching in the morning, which was at the intermediate level, and was given the beginner class instead. I found teaching beginners quite challenging, and not nearly as much fun as teaching higher-level students. Teaching the very basics of English – how to make five-word sentences, how to count to one hundred – isn't very interesting, and it's difficult to make the class fun while keeping it simple enough for the students to understand. Fortunately, a more experienced teacher was also teaching the same level, and she gave me a lot of advice and ideas about activities. On my last day I brought in icy moon-cakes to share with everyone, in honour of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. I was really sorry to leave, but I think I've learned a lot over the last four months. My boss had good things to say about me, and my co-workers were really nice about saying goodbye. I hope I can find another job like it in Ontario.

So far my only plan for when I return to Ontario is to apply to the JET Programme again. I didn't get in this year, but I still really want to go, badly enough that I'm willing to go through the whole process all over again! I'll be pretty disappointed if I'm unsuccessful again, but it would be worth it to go to Japan. In the mean time, I don't know what my chances of finding a good job in Ontario will be, but it will at least be nice to be home again.

Movies I've seen this month:

The Visitor – An interesting little movie about undocumented aliens and the challenges of the U.S. immigration system. I thought it was pretty good, although I wish it had focused more on the immigrant characters. (Three stars)

Plays I've seen this month:

Othello – I'd read this play before, and liked it a lot, but this was my first time to actually see it. It's definitely one of Shakespeare's better plays – not quite Hamlet, perhaps, but then, what is? Compared to his other major works, it's not the best-written, but it makes up for that with a pretty strong story. Moreover, the production I saw was really good, with strong performances from everyone, especially the protagonist. In fact, it was the best Shakespeare production I can recall seeing.

Books I've read this month:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain – I couldn't always tell in this book whether Twain was poking fun with his protagonist, or at him, but I prefer to think that he's doing both, and to see this book as an indictment both of the barbarism of the middle ages and of the "myth of progress" that dominates modern American thinking.

Pride and the Island and Zombies - August 2009

My second summer in Vancouver has been jam-packed with activities. I'm still working, doing basically the same thing as last month, and continuing to enjoy it. Not only has that kept me busy during the week, but my weekends have also been quite full.

First, there were the fireworks. I'd been to see them last August, and this year I went with my roommates to see them again. The same weekend was the Pride celebration. Last year, I went to see my very first Pride Parade; this year, I marched in the parade. I went with my church, which in turn went as part of the Anglican Diocese of Vancouver. Since the parade was on Sunday, we gathered at church for an early-morning service, then had breakfast, and took our places in the parade line-up. It was a hot day, and we spent a good hour or so just standing around before the parade even started! Besides having fun, I got a nifty tan that day – which was good, as I'd somehow managed to go half a summer without getting tanned!

The next weekend I went over to Nanaimo for an AVEN meet-up. It was a pretty short visit; I spent more time just getting to Nanaimo and back than actually being in the city. Still, it gave me an excuse to see more of Vancouver Island, and also to see more of North Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, which I found remarkably lovely.

A buddy of mine from the Netherlands came to visit for a week, and we spent much of the following weekend together. Saturday happened to be the Vancouver Zombie Walk, which I mentioned last year in my September post. Last time I wasn't able to take pictures, so this time I made a point of bringing my camera. Unfortunately, this year's walk wasn't as exciting as last year's; the zombies seemed much less organised, and it came off more like a Zombie Stroll or Zombie Chill. Still, I did get a few good pictures, including zombie pirates, a zombie Dorothy and Scarecrow, and – my favourite – zombie Michael Jackson! After the zombies we went to Granville Island to see a high school production of Macbeth. Obviously, being done by high school students, it wasn't the best Shakespeare production I've seen, but it was still pretty good, and it was free!

I used the next weekend to take my last trip to Victoria. I decided I should take advantage of the opportunity to do a little more sight-seeing, so I spent an afternoon at the Royal B.C. Museum. I'd heard it was really good, and it was, but I found it a bit small, and very expensive. I spent most of my time in the native American art exhibit. I enjoyed learning about native American culture and history, both pre- and post-European contact. I especially appreciated that the exhibit was limited specifically to B.C. native cultures. Too often it seems that Canada's native peoples get discussed in a holistic way that obfuscates the vast diversity among them. The other exhibits were about the local environment and local culture, neither of which I found very exciting. There was also a special exhibit of artefacts from the British Museum, which should have been fascinating – except that I'd seen the same exhibit when I was in Hong Kong two years ago. The best part of the whole day may have been as I was leaving the museum. A guy in a Darth Vader costume was standing on a street corner playing the fiddle. Now, a guy standing on a street corner and playing a fiddle – we've all seen that. But a guy standing on a corner, playing a fiddle, and wearing a Darth Vader costume… that's special!

The last weekend of the month I had a work dinner on Saturday and an AVEN dinner on Sunday. The work dinner was at my boss's house, and it went quite well, although, oddly, my boss was unable to eat anything because she is Muslim and was observing Ramadan! The AVEN dinner was almost a complete disaster when we got to the intended restaurant and found it closed, but fortunately we quickly scouted the restaurant across the street, and were able to move the whole even over there! That weekend, I also saw my sister off. She'd been living and studying in Victoria, but now she's moving back to Ontario. I've enjoyed having her so close by. With her gone, I probably won't stay in Vancouver much longer.

Movies I've seen this month:

The Last King of Scotland – I thought this was quite a good movie over-all, although, as often happens with films about political upheaval in foreign countries, I found myself wondering, "Why are they making it all about the white guy?" (Three and a half stars)

Plays I've seen this month:

Macbeth – This was technically my second time seeing Macbeth in as many years, the first having been in Hong Kong. It wasn't terribly professional, but I thought the young actors did a pretty good job with their parts, especially the lead. I also liked the decision to dress the characters in a neo-Goth style, which I thought suited the material quite well.

Books I've read this month:

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham – Aside from my slight disappointment that this book, despite its title, has comparatively little to do with triffids, I was quite impressed with it. It paints a very interesting picture of humanity struggling to survive in the aftermath of a biological holocaust, and although I don't agree with all its predictions, I still found it a good read.

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain – A sweet children's fable with a completely fantastic premise. I appreciated the mix of historical realism and gentle satire with a sense of whimsy and innocence.

26 - July 2009

Thirteen years ago, at the age of thirteen, I decided to take stock of my life. I looked at who I was, and how I'd gotten that way. Most importantly, I thought about what I wanted my future to be like. I didn't have any clear idea of how long it might take to turn into the kind of person I wanted to be, but I'd always imagined that I should have most of it sorted out by the time I was twenty-six. Besides, at twenty-six I would be twice as old as I currently was. So I decided to set myself a few goals, and hope to have them achieved by that age. Chief among them were the following: make a friend, fall in love, and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Thirteen years later I've had variable success. I've never fallen in love, but I'm beginning to think that may not be all that important. I haven't figured out what I want to do with my life, but I do like the path I'm on, and I've decided to concentrate on enjoying the journey. I have made a friend. Or two. And, as that's probably the most important of the three goals, I think I can feel pretty good about that.

So, now that I'm twenty-six, it's time to take stock again. Here, in brief, is my life as I saw it thirteen years ago, and as I see it now.

At thirteen:

Favourite colour – white
Favourite movie – the Star Wars trilogy
Favourite T.V. show – I can't remember what I watched back then. Probably Wishbone, Bill Nye, or Alex Mack.
Favourite book – The Neverending Story
Favourite musical artist – Probably one or all of Amanda Marshall, Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan, or Sheryl Crow.
Countries I'd visited – 4: Canada, the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark (The U.S. doesn't count, since I was too young to remember it.)
Cities I'd lived in – 3: London, ON; London, UK; Ottawa, ON (L.A. doesn't count. See above.)
Jobs I'd had – 0
Musical instruments I'd studied – 2: Piano, trumpet
Languages I spoke fluently – 1: English

At twenty-six:

Favourite colour – blue
Favourite movie – I haven't seen Star Wars since I was thirteen, but I suspect it'd still be number one.
Favourite T.V. show – The X-Files
Favourite book – The Neverending Story (Some things haven't changed.)
Favourite musical artist – Collective Soul
Countries I've visited – 7: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong
Cities I've lived in – 5: London, ON; London, UK; Ottawa, ON; Hong Kong; Vancouver, BC
Jobs I've had – 8: food court attendant, ice-cream scooper, inventory clerk, drug store cashier, E.S.L. tutor, E.S.L. teacher (3)
Musical instruments I've studied – 3: piano, trumpet, oboe (plus trying to teach myself the guitar)
Languages I speak fluently – 1: English

These are my goals for the next thirteen years: learn French, pick a career, and write a book. We'll see how that goes.

This was the first year in a very long time that I was away from Ottawa for Canada Day. Celebrating our nation's birthday in our national capital has been something of a tradition for me since I graduated high school. I made the best of it, though. The weather was lovely: sunny, and not too hot. I went down to Granville Island, where they had live music and some official Canada Day ceremonies. The coolest thing they had there was a display entitled "Where In the World Do You Say You Are From?" Visitors were invited to place a stone on a world map representing where they were from. The purpose of the exercise, as was explained to me, was to get people to think about how they identified themselves, and also to highlight the diversity of people at the event. I put my rock on the Ottawa area. It's where I usually say I am from, even though I wasn't born there and am not currently living there. After Granville Island I went down to the beach to watch the fireworks. It got pretty cold sitting out on the beach at night, and we couldn't see the fireworks very well, but I had a pretty good time, over all.

During the winter I learned that Vancouverites have a very low tolerance for cold. To my surprise, I've discovered that they're almost equally intolerant of heat. In July, I started hearing people commenting on how hot the weather was – "hot" being about 25ºC. Then a heat wave hit, and suddenly the weather became "ridiculously hot". Which is to say that it broke 30ºC. I felt obliged to explain that 30ºC is not "ridiculously" anything. It's hot. Period. And anything below 30ºC is merely "warm". Seriously, they should go through 40º weather in Ontario. Then they'd know the meaning of "ridiculous".

July was my first full month of teaching, and I enjoyed it a lot. I had a really good curriculum to work with, and I had a lot of fun picking and choosing what things to teach and supplementing them with my own ideas. I have some really great students to thank for that. One of my classes in particular contained a fairly enthusiastic bunch, and they were a pleasure to teach. Not all of my lessons were successful, and I know I still have a long way to go as a teacher, but enough went well this month to make me feel relatively good about myself and confident about the future. My favourite parts were planning a scavenger hunt at HMV and teaching social issues and discussion techniques.

One of my roommates had her birthday in July, so we all went out clubbing to celebrate. I've had some pretty good clubbing experiences, but this wasn't one of them. First we went to a bar. We had to pay cover just to get into the bar, then sat around for an hour drinking – or, in my case, not drinking – and talking – or rather not talking because it was too noisy to hear anything! When we got to the club, it was packed, and we had to pay cover again. We squeezed into a corner near the entrance, where we were in everyone's way. We had to move every thirty seconds to let people by, and I got elbowed in the nose by someone! Eventually I decided to move to the actual dance floor. Dancing was considerably easier there, but the music wasn't very good. They mostly played random techno-ish music with no clear melody, which was really hard to dance to. In short, the whole experience was disappointing, and I hope the next time I go clubbing it's with people with better judgement, at a club with better music.

I spent my birthday weekend with my sister. On my actual birthday we climbed Grouse Mountain. This time I made it up in and hour and forty minutes, a ten minute improvement over last time! I'd gotten a second-hand digital camera when I was in Ottawa, and my sister gave me an SD card for a birthday present. That means from now on I should be able to take much better pictures than I have.

In the news, Michael Jackson died. This hasn't affected me as strongly as some people who can actually remember when he was popular. My earliest memories are all of him as an effeminate white-person. I like some of his songs, I respect him as a cultural icon, and feel sorry for him as a person. Other than that, I don't have much of an opinion.

Movies I've seen this month:

Finding Neverland – I expected to like this film a lot, but actually found it quite disappointing. It has a good story, a top-notch cast – and oddly uninspired writing and directing. (Three stars)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring – Artsy Korean film about a Buddhist monk and his pupil. I liked it at first, but I found it harder to understand as it went on, and was fairly confused by the end. (Two and a half stars)

Public Enemies – The film looks beautiful, sounds pretty good, and features some great actors. Unfortunately, the story isn't particularly engaging, and I never really cared about the characters as much as I wanted to. It may not be a bad movie – but I feel no desire at all to ever see it again. (Three stars)

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Wow! This show has come a long way! From its humble, somewhat laughable beginnings, it's grown into a mature, intelligent, and genuinely angsty sci-fi thriller. The story was interesting, the plot was comparatively tight, and there were even some good character moments. Sure, some developments don't really make sense, but others are amazing! Oh, and not to give spoilers, but there's at least one twist I'm really sad about. *sniff* I won't hold it against the writers, though, because it was brilliant!

Books I've read this month:

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham – One of those novels I never got around to reading when I was in elementary school. It paints a fairly interesting picture of what life might be like in a remote, post-apocalyptic society. I found the ending somewhat disturbing, but over all I quite liked it.

Me and My Little Room - June 2009

I started working again at the beginning of the month. I started out substituting for a teacher who was on vacation, but after she came back I was given my own class, and now it looks like I'll have a job at least until the end of the summer. I'm at another language school, just like the the last two I worked at. So far I like the environment: the students are well-behaved, the staff are friendly, and the curriculum seems good.

Apart from re-adjusting to life in the workforce, I haven't been up to much this month. I've grown comfortable with my life here in Vancouver. I like my little basement room, and my roommates seem okay. Currently, I'm living with a good mix of nationalities. There's an Irish couple and a couple of Mexicans. There was also a German girl, but she's moved out and been replaced by a Japanese girl and a Québécoise. I enjoy going to church, taking long walks, and occasionally socialising. Other than that, I don't get up to much. Vancouver's lost most of its excitement, and I probably won't stay here much longer. For the time being, though, I have a job I like, and the weather's been quite nice, so I'm enjoying myself.

I did the Grouse Grind again, and it only took me one hour and fifty minutes. That's five minutes less than last time! It was nice weather, not as cold and wet as in October, but not too hot, either. The surprising thing was how cold I felt when I got to the top. I don't know if it was because of the altitude or the fact that I was drenched in sweat, but I needed a hot drink to warm me up. Maybe it was the altitude; I took a walk around, and noticed a few snow patches still lying around! I also saw the birds and the grizzly bears, although the latter were sleeping.

In the news… Iran's been in the news a lot. Obviously I support democracy, and oppose nuclear proliferation, but beyond that I don't really know what to think. If the election was rigged, I think there should be a recount, but if the result was valid, then we all have to accept it.

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

New Doctor Who (Season 2) – I thought that after Christopher Eccleston, I might not warm again to David Tennant, but I did. This season seemed like a slight improvement over the last one, although it's possible that my standards have just fallen. I am beginning to enjoy the wackiness of this series; the almost gleeful cheesiness actually gives it a lot of character. It's just too bad the writing and acting aren't better; it could be a really good show if they were.