Aug 12
I arrived alone in Vancouver Canada. The flight was an easy one as it was barely over two hours. Upon arrival, I was busy finding my way, checking out the cool windowous airport decorated with plentiful of native Inuit art. It was my first time going through the Canadian custom via air, I was a bit nervous yet quite excited. After passing through the custom, way easier than that of the Unite States, I had to visit the Immigration Office. It was not bad as it only took an extra 30 minutes or so. Coming out of the gate, I was looking for my primary school classmate Leon who I had not seen for 14 years. I was expecting him to be real tall, and I tried to imagine a mature face from his childhood face. I looked very slowly and carefully among the crowd from left to right. As I proceeded slowly, I was still worried that I had overlooked so like an automated surveillance monitor, I kept going back one frame and checked to see if I had missed Leon. I walked faster and faster for no reason, until my eyes met with a 6-feet tall guy’s and with a smile and a dimple on the side, it only took a split of a second for us to confirm each other’s identities. I remembered Leon said he would bring a sign with my name on it which I had urged him not to, so I was about to tease him about not bringing the sign. As I removed my attention from his eyes, trying to focus back on my path, I saw him folding up a piece of paper and got ready to head toward my direction, and that piece of paper, indeed, had my name written on it. It was such a funny moment. Lots went on in my mind as I scanned through the crowd and wondered if I would ever be able to recognize him.
Aug 13
I went downtown on my own by bus. The public transportation system is very user friendly. At best, there is a bus that runs right to and fro the door of my hotel. I ventured into the unknown downtown with a map in my hand. I decided to get off just past a stop where most people got off. I walked back and ran into the more happening part of the street. There are tons of cool shops on the street, Granville, and with nothing in hand to do I hopped from shop to shop. I managed to buy two things on that day even though I told myself that I didn’t need anything. I became tired quite soon window shopping and I felt very lonely inside. Somehow something got me pretty badly. I am used to spending time on my own and visiting new places by myself and even trying out new restaurant by myself. But this very day, the very next day after I arrived in Vancouver, I was overwhelmed by loneliness that I couldn’t enjoy myself in such a vibrant city. There were so many moments where I wished that my friends from SF were here so that I could yell “hey check that out”, “hey let’s go eat there”, “hey have you ever seen this before?” Seriously for some periods of time, I wondered what had happened to me. Why I couldn’t hold up by myself all of a sudden. Nothing had changed since I last moved to Davis. I started to feel a bit worried for my move to Hawaii but I know I wouldn’t want to go back to Davis. Maybe I was just spoiled by the enormous attention and friendly company during my last days in California. Thanks Leon to the rescue later in the afternoon, he walked with me on Robsin, introducing me to the Waterfront, Gastown and China town. We saw pretty much everything within Vancouver that day by walk and we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. All the shops close early there. We were the last customer that day. It was 8:30PM when we left.
Aug 14
I spent all day by myself this day. Having grown accustomed to the downtown area, I returned to Robson Street and investigated the street more closely than my evening walk with Leon. I tried out a very authentic Korean restaurant and the food was delicious. I had seafood over rice in a clay pot. Then I headed to the Blenz Coffee Shop which has free wireless internet access. I stayed there for about 3 hours. Where I sat I was overlooking the intersection of Robson and Bute Streets. It was a very lively place, there was good music and soothing aroma in the café, I was able to talk to my friends who I missed a great deal over the internet. I wished so much to show them everything I saw and if they were here, we could go do a lot of fun things. That was how much I missed them.
Aug 15
It was a long wait at the U.S. Embassy. But a long wait resulted in successful visa approval. I even collected my passport on the same day. However, I wished to note how little human interests there were with the U.S. Embassy. No bags are allowed in the building, yet they are already searching everything. How impossible is it to not allow a regular sized backpack which is used to carry documents? I was lucky enough to find a café to temporarily hold my bag though for a minute service charge of CANS$2.00. I was about to give the owner CAN$5.00 but he gave me change, so…When collecting the passport, a good number of people couldn’t get in just because they have brought a folder or other minor personal items besides the collection ticket. The Embassy officers urged us to ask someone else to collect our passports for us as they wouldn’t be checking the personal items first. It’s one thing to enforce sensible rules; it’s another thing to impose ridiculous rules on people and induced unnecessary difficulties. I truly think that some of those rules are ridiculous and there were moments when I wondered why I even wanted to be in the U.S. with the trends of lack of humanity going on in the country. Education first is my conclusion for now, and then I shall decide.
It was about 3:30PM and we went to visit Stanley Park and the Aquarium. The Aquarium is quite small yet it features an animal that I had never seen before—Beluga. Belugas are white whales from the Artic. They are snow white, whale-looking but with a bulgy squishy forehead called the melon, a wide smiley mouth that is always smiling. Their eyes are very small and lie just above the corners of their mouth. Even though they are known as opportunistic feeders, they look totally harmless and innocent. Another special feature of these whales is their phenomenal deposits of fats around their bodies. They are called blabber and they surely jiggle.
Aug 16
I had another easy day on my own, but my feeling of loneliness has disappeared. I was enjoying myself a great deal cruising around. And the more I see the city with or without Leon and the more I learn about it, I grew to appreciate it and like it day by day. I picked out things that are different from where I have been in the States and I really prefer these differences over those in the States. As I discussed with Leon more, I am seriously considering Vancouver as a potential city to settle in the future. On this day, I took the SeaBus to North Vancouver and visited the Lonsdale Quay market. The market was pretty much it on the north shore besides the regular residential and business buildings. The ferry ride was fun. Ferry was clean and the ride is only 20 minutes including boarding and getting off. I am very impressed by Vancouver’s public transportation system.
Aug 17
Leon took me hiking in the Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. We drove across the Lions Gate (which I compared to the Golden Gate) and crossed another short bridge to a whole different town of West Vancouver. West Vancouver appears to be more upscale and more quiet and peaceful. Driving from east to west on the two-lane road reminded me much of Juneau. It was like the way to Out-the-road leading to the water, the beaches and the forests. We hiked around the park, which wasn’t too much in distance, but it was of the same degree backcountriesness as in Juneau. It felt so much like home. It almost felt like I was hiking in Juneau once again and that intensified my thought of taking Vancouver as my future home.
To reward ourselves after a good hike, Leon and I went for Baked Pork Chop Rice and Seafood stirred fried Udon at the Honolulu Café. The food was good and very economical. I hope I could find something comparable when I get to Honolulu in two days.
Aug 18
Last full day in Vancouver, I had dim sum with Leon’s family. I totally forgot if I had ever met Leon’s mom before but his younger sister definitely looks familiar. Dim sum was good, and there was a lot of shrimp in everything, almost every dish was featuring their pretty good size shrimp. An example would be the main ingredient of “siu mai” was shrimp. After dim sum, Leon took me to UBC, we saw the campus, the beach by the campus, and then we went to Granville Island right under Granville Bridge. This under bridge city was really awesome. I was most impressed by the magnificent condominium/apartments around the island. The downtown part of Granville Island was much like an upscale fishermen’s wharf. But it was even richer in colors and unique shops. Then a home made dinner at Leon’s house was very nice. Though the dishes tasted different from anything I had eaten whether at home or from the restaurants, it was cool because it was like different kind of cuisines. That was my very last night at Vancouver. I wrote the postcard last minute after I finished packing, so I had only one hour of sleep before I had to get up to go to the airport at five AM.
