New Layout

I was ready for a new look to my blog.... but it totally messed up all my layouts... so, if you're reading an old post and the pictures are cut off/weird, sorry... they looked good when I did it the first time! =)

Vancouver Barbie

One of my classmates posted this on facebook... it made me laugh. =)
I live in Surrey...

Greater Vancouver Barbies

-er or -re?

I just typed the word "centre" without even having to THINK about the order of the last two letters... does that make me Canadian now?

Croc-en-cannelle, s'il vous plait?

I don't really feel like I'm living in a "foreign" country on a day to day basis. All the pomp and circumstance I had to go through to live up here (not to mention every time I cross the border) seems a little silly to me as I'm JUST in Canada. I feel like the only culture shock that I've really had to deal with up here is from small, homogeneous city to BIG, diverse city.

And then I go to the grocery store and I get a little bit of a reminder that I'm no longer in good ol' Oregon...



Seems a bit classier in French, don't it? lol




Everything in the grocery store is in both English and FRENCH over here... not going to find dual language Spanish stuff very easily up here... and my parents didn't think I'd ever use my French... well, by the time I'm done up here, I'll at least be able to order my favorite cereal! =)

Canadians Take Honolulu!

Jacob and I decided to take a, somewhat, spontaneous vacation to Hawaii during my break between terms. We were sooo tired of the cold, wet weather and wanted to get away from it for awhile. So, on April 28th we flew to Honolulu for 4 days in a tropical climate!

Guess what we found there? Canadians. EVERYWHERE!

Our shuttle to Hanauma Bay was full of Canadians (Edmonton, Toronto and Chilliwack). At a burger joint for lunch one day the group at the table next to us was from somewhere in Canada. We turned on the TV in our hotel and there was the Canucks. Everywhere we turned, every tour we went on, there were Canadians! I guess we weren't the only ones who needed a break from the extended winter! We got back up to BC earlier this week and I started preparing for the new term and getting the online class that I"m a teaching assistant for organized. My students are all suppose to post an introduction on the website so I know they are up and running. One of my students introduced himself by saying, "I just got back to BC after a vacation in Hawaii"... lol


On another note, we had a fantastic time on our shot visit to Oahu. We went snorkeling at Hanuma Bay, drove mopeds around the island and through the mountains up to Pali Lookout, climbed Diamond Head, took a horseback trail ride on a ranch on the North Shore, walked the beaches of Waikiki and the eastern shore of the island, and rented a convertible to drive around and explore on our final day. We came home with lots of memories... and some pretty massive sunburns!

Hong-couver

Some see the this Vancouver nickname as derogatory as it refers to the large number of Chinese and other Asian immigrants in the area due to many waves of immigration throughout history, however, about 1/5 of the population of the Vancouver-metro area are from Chinese decent (other Asian ancestries are in addition to this). Approximately 1/2 of Vancouverites have a language other than English as their first language (with Asian languages being at the top of the list).

I hear a variety of Asian languages spoken every day. I've seen a man on the skytrain reading a newspaper with characters rather than letters. And today, why checking out the bulletin board at school, I saw at least half a dozen notices that looked a lot like this:

Canadian Tax Returns... Boggles the Mind

My Canadian tax returns were waiting for me when I returned from my brief hiatus to Hawaii (more on that later). As always, it's nice to get a little bit of "free" money. But here's the interesting part; Apparently I made a mistake on my return and they sent me a statement explaining the correction they made and the new amount they calculated... which turned out to be MORE than I had originally figured I should be getting. I kinda like this Canadian system... lol