Where It Used To Snow

The weekends are my chance to catch up on podcasts (mostly public radio podcasts) from earlier in the week that I didn't have a chance to listen to. This brings me such joy. Of course it's totally nerdy that this brings me joy, but I look forward to hearing those familiar voices, those same corny jokes, and those interesting pieces. I look forward to becoming informed for the week. When I listen to them I get all inspired to read every major newspaper, and it makes me want to read a ton of books and journal articles. But usually after listening to my podcasts, I just feel like taking a nap -- those voices are just too soothing. Oh the excitment of my life.

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A really crazy storm hit the Northwest yesterday and it dumped a lot of snow on Vancouver (and "a lot" is relative -- it's a lot for Vancouver, but nothing out of the ordinary for Utah. Even though it sounds like winter in Utah this year is out of the ordinary...). It was snowing really hard all day. When it snows here, the town just shuts down. They don't usually get snow so:

A) People don't know how to drive in snow, so they usually drive really scared or not scared enough. And what makes driving even crazier is that...
B) There is a paucity of snow plows; simply because most of the time they're not needed.

So no one wants to drive in the snow -- and if they did, several roads aren't even plowed -- and thus the town just dies. No one is on the road. Some businesses shut down. Last year school was canceled twice because of snow (and it's not like we were hit with two feet of snow or anything).
When a big storm like this comes in, Eagan and I follow other Vancouverites' lead and stay in. We're used to much more snow than this; but as we live atop a very steep hill, we don't want to risk driving down a steep, unplowed hill with drivers that are not comfortable driving in the snow. So Eagan and I decided to make use of this storm and thought it would be a good stress reliever to play outside in the snow. We built snowmen, had a snowball fight, and just walked around campus in the snow. Then we came back, got warm, and had hot chocolate. Sometimes it's nice to feel like a kid again and appreciate the small wonders of playing in the snow.

And then today it's just been really rainy and windy. All the snow has been melted by the rain. It's so weird. Just yesterday everything was absolutely covered in thick snow and now it's back to nothing but green grass.

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For all you America's Next Top Model fans out there (holla!), I saw Enrique Iglesias's music video the other night. You know, the vampire/night club one? The one the models were featured in? Wrong! They were totally cut out. Not a single ANTM model appeared in the video. Not even in the background! They must have completely reshot the video without them (or maybe went with the original version, and the ANTM version was just a joke?). The roles the ANTM girls played in the video were filled by other nameless models. It was actually kind of awesome to watch. I kept thinking, "Oh man! Totally burned!" I bet the ANTM girls feel pretty stupid (unless they knew the whole time it wasn't actually going to be the video).

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A lot of U.S. movies and TV shows are filmed in Vancouver (and the Greater Vancouver Area). After living here for more than a year, I'm pretty familiar with the terrain and when I'm watching a TV show or movie I'm so happy when I can recognize Vancouver in the background. It's like a new hobby for me.
There is also a lot of stuff filmed on campus here. You know that movie Anti-Trust? It had Ryan Phillippe and Tim Robbins. The one that was about the overly-powerful computer company that was dominated by an ego-maniacal, extremely rich, powerful CEO that was trying to control the industy and the world and he looked like Bill Gates and he even lived in Washington by a lake...but he wasn't Bill Gates and it wasn't Microsoft. Yeah, that movie. Anyway, in the first 15 minutes of the movie there is an aerial shot of the supposed computer company, but it's actually Simon Fraser (I guess because it looks 'high tech' and 'futuristic').
Anyway, there's currently a movie that is being filmed on campus that stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher (and I looked it up on imdb and it also stars Kathy Bates...I wonder if she's been on campus at all?). Students have mentioned seeing Michelle and Ashton around campus. We've seen all the filming equipment set up and all the craft trailers. The other night they had those huge, bright lights on for when they're filming in the night and trying to make it look like the day. Eagan I walked by a trailer and saw people looking at some daily footage. We have yet to see any actual movie stars, but we'll keep you posted. I mean it's no Corey Feldman or Corey Haim, but we'll settle for Michelle Pfeiffer and possibly Kathy Bates being on campus.

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There's currently a 'special' channel on TV. I think it's set up for the holidays. This channel has nothing but footage of a fire burning in a fireplace. Like in real time. And they play Christmas music. So, like, you could sit around 'the fireplace' with your family and listen to Christmas music. That's bizarre. So bizarre in fact that I found myself watching it for 20 minutes at 2:00 in the morning. I guess once it gets to be late night, they no longer play Christmas music...but they keep the fire going. So it's just a channel with a fire going. I watched it thinking it had to stop soon. I must just be catching the channel each time it shows this, but it only lasts for a minute and then they'll go to something else. Nope. I watched that channel for 10 minutes and it never changed. But then, alas, someone's arm came into the shot. What's going on? Then the arm picked up a fire poker and started poking the fire. This arm poked the fire for a good couple of minutes. He overpoked it, if you asked me. I'm surprised that fire didn't go out. But, with each poke came that wonderfully festive crackling and spitting of the fire. That channel is really dedicated to preserving that fire. But don't worry fireplace channel, it's not going unnoticed -- I tell you, that fire could bring any family together.

Does anyone else have any similiar fireplace channel? Or am I just super lucky?

Simon Fraser University

To give you a better idea of where we are going to school, I thought it would be a good idea to post some pictures from around the campus.

Both of these aerial pictures (which I did not take) are a little bit older; there have since been new building additions to the campus. In the first picture you have a good view of the Burrard Inlet. In the second picture you have a good view of the Academic Quadrangle -- that's the square building that the Sociology department is in. In the center of the AQ is the courtyard, complete with a pond. The second picture also demonstrates how the campus is isolated on top of a hill (they call it Burnaby Mountain), surrounded by forest. That's Vancouver at the bottom of the hill.

Here are different views of the AQ courtyard. In these pictures you can see that the 5th and 6th level of the AQ is above ground. The 4th level is 'hollow', it's just the ground level. Then the other levels are underground (but the other levels aren't technically underground because the AQ is on a hill. So the other levels are kind of 'inside' the hill. It's kind of hard to explain...)
Anyway. The courtyard is designed to represent the topography of British Columbia. The pond (which has a solid chunk of jade in the middle) represents the ocean. The second picture is supposed to represent the forests. The elevated hill in the third picture is supposed to represent the mountains. The Marijuana Party (yes, that's a club on campus) meets every Thursday at 4:20 (clever...) on top of the elevated hill. They stick their flag in the ground (the Canadian flag -- but instead of a maple leaf, it's a marijuana leaf) and they light up and chat. Just shows you how decriminalized marijuana is in Vancouver.

One time I almost fell off the bridge into the water because I wasn't paying attention when I was walking. That bridge can be dangerous. But it's pretty. I love watching the fish from the bridge.

It doesn't happen often, but this is what it looks like when it snows.

The statue is of Terry Fox. He is a Canadian legend and he went to Simon Fraser University. When he was in his early 20s he got bone cancer and he lost his leg. He decided he was going to run across Canada to raise cancer awareness and to raise funds for cancer research. This is extremely impressive, especially since this was in the 1970s and prosthetic legs were far from what they are now. His prosthetic leg didn't bend, he more just balanced on it and his left leg did all the work. He started his run in the east end of Canada (St. Johns, Newfoundland) and he made it all the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario (which is past Toronto). He ran 143 days. Then he got really sick, his cancer spread to his lungs, and he had to stop. He returned home to British Columbia, and then died less than a year later. I guess you're fully initiated in Canada once you watch a made-for-TV biopic on Terry Fox and cry your eyes out.

This is the Convocation Mall. This is where various student activities and events take place (including graduation). The roof is made out of glass -- to provide light, and at the same time, to shield from the rain. Very smart. In the first picture you can see the entrance to the library. On the other side of the convocation mall is the student center and the pub (you heard me right, a real pub on campus).

This is the student center. At the time of the picture there was a lively game of croquet going on in the field by the student center. At SFU, I see people playing all kinds of games that I don't usually see people play (at least on university campuses). Like croquet and bocce.

This is Cornerstone. This is a square block on the east side of campus that has many shops and cafes. It's like a little city block. There's an Indian restaurant, a pizza place, a donair (kind of like gyros) cafe, an eyeglass shop, a cafe that has great gelato, a computer store, a post office, a corner market, a salads and wraps cafe, a cellphone store, a bank, a dentist's office, a beauty salon, an organic cafe, a video rental store, a copy store, a Japanese cafe, and a coffee shop. It is very convenient having that on campus.

These pictures are of the forest surrounding campus. The first picture (of Eagan camouflaged in the forest) is on the north side of campus. The TransCanada trail runs through there. The second picture is from the west side of campus by housing.

Like Endless Rain Into a Paper Cup

Last weekend was Eagan's 25th birthday. That bloke is now a quarter-of-a-century old!

Speaking of that, I started thinking about 'milestone' years a few weeks ago at a party. We were guessing different people's ages and when I was asked my age, I drew a blank. I sat there for a second thinking, "wait, how old am I?" Two numbers circled around in my head: 22 and 23. But which was I? I remember turning 21 because that's a 'milestone' age -- that's the age you're legally allowed to drink. But the ages between 21 and 25 are just a blur. A blur of 'not-important' years. I finally had to just break down and do the math, "Well I was born in 1984, and it's 2007, so that makes me...23...so, I'm 23. Yeah, 23. "

I never thought I'd forget my age. The only other time I forgot my age was when I had to schedule an appointment to remove my wisdom teeth and I was super nervous. The receptionist asked me my age and I instantly said "16!" Without hesitation.
My mom said, "you mean 17?"
"Oh yeah...17"
I giggled nervously and added, "...and I'm actually turning 18 in two weeks."

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To celebrate Eagan's birthday, we went to Vancouver's #1 ranked Indian restaurant. That place is so hugely popular that the place is packed at 6:00 PM (which is unheard of in a big city). But to ease the wait, they kept bringing out free appetizers. After waiting for 30 minutes and having four different types of amazing appetizers delivered to us on a platter every few minutes -- Eagan and I joked that we should just eat the appetizers and then say, "You know what? We decided against eating here." That would have been ultra classy.

But the entrees were even better and we can see how they are ranked the best year after year. I had chicken in a clove, garlic, and yogurt curry sauce. Eagan had a duo of dumplings in a pomegranate curry sauce and a saag paneer. My mouth is watering just talking about it.

We also had a party with a few close friends. We sat around and talked and drank wine (you'd be surprised how often that happens with grad students. I'm quite the anomaly as I'm not a big drinker). We also broke out the games. I'm glad we found friends that like to play games -- because what get-together is complete without some games? What party is complete without feeling like the coolest person in the world because you were able to act out "RuPaul" without making any sound and your team was able to guess it!

Then came the cake. The Cake. Eagan was so proud of picking out this cake. We got it at an artisan bakery on The Drive (it's kind of like the Vancouver equivalent of Haight-Ashbury). It was a super moist chocolate cake with a sliced almond glazed topping and chocolate ganache. It was so rich -- so rich in fact that Anna Nicole Smith would have wanted to marry it when it was 89 (too soon?).

The Cake

Aazadeh, Eagan, Emma, and Kirsten


Eagan loved that cake

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Eagan and I saw the movie Across the Universe the other day. It's a film set in the 60's (characters are dealing with Vietnam, the anti-war movement, the counter-culture movement, etc.). And it's a musical with Beatles' songs. The soundtrack is amazing -- I love the arrangements and I love the singers (who were the actors). The movie was also filmed beautifully -- many of the scenes looked like beautiful artwork. It reminded me of Moulin Rouge. I would definitely recommend it (It's rated PG here, but Canada has a different system for rating movies. I'm guessing it's not going to be rated PG in the states. Maybe PG-13?)

Oh yeah and another cool thing about the movie is that there are various allusions throughout the movie that are fun to pick out. It makes for a good game of spot-the-reference.

Another Sunny Day

Last weekend Janell came up from Portland for a visit. It was wonderful to see her and it was fun showing her around campus and taking her around the city to all the places we like. There's always that feeling of "well we haven't seen each other in a year or so, hopefully it's doesn't feel too awkward or forced." But we just naturally picked up right where we left off. It was great.

Luckily, it was gorgeous weather the whole time. The sun was shining and it was warm out. Nothing better than a sunny, crisp Fall afternoon. The weather was so great that we headed down to Stanley Park and walked around the beach.

A beautiful day at the beach/The water was freezing/Eagan showing his "I have light-sensitive eyes" face.

The weather also brought out the crazies. My favorite. This particular artist (accent over the i) spent quite a lot of time deciding where to place the sticks (in order to get the most artistic value out of them, of course) and then spent even more time making sure the sticks were put in precisley the right place. Precision is key. He would get very pissed and animated when the sticks wouldn't stay in the right place. Then he would step back, and hunch over (as illustrated in the picture), and smoke a cigarette while he decided if the sculpture was just right. To an untrained eye, that might just look like a jumbled mess of sticks put together by a crazy, shirtless guy on the beach. Oh, but it is so much more.

When we were shopping we came across this "festive" window display. Whoever was put in charge of this got a little carried away. It scares me how much detail they put into it. Like cutting off the mannequin's finger. And taking off the mannequin's hand. And tearing the shirt. It kind of scares me what went through this employee's mind when they were accessing the 'creative' part of their brain. When we first walked by their was also a baby doll that was covered in blood and was put inside a clear, plastic bag, and it was on the floor by the mannequin's foot. Then when we walked by later, the doll was gone. I'm guessing someone complained about that...

Then after all the crazy people and crazy shopping, we went home and played games, had an Arrested Development marathon, and played crazy Japanese video games that were obviously made by extremely high Japenese video game designers. And we pigged out on these wonderful delicacies.

Pigging out on the likes of hazelnut creme squares, french eclairs, and cannolis is the perfect way to end a day. Trust me.

Overall, it was a really great weekend and I needed a refresher like that since school and work usually takes up most of my time these days.

The Great White North: Part 1

Eagan and I just celebrated what we like to call Fakesgiving. For the rest of Canada it was Thanksgiving. In my mind, Thanksgiving is a holiday that only exists after Halloween. As it's not Halloween, it can't be Thanksgiving. So it's only Fakesgiving. You're wrong, Canada.

Nonetheless, Eagan and I made Thanksgiving-themed food and had a nice dinner for Fakesgiving. We sat around complaining about how full we were and then we went to a movie. It sounds like Thanksgiving...and it tastes like Thanksgiving...but it's, like, not. There was even football playing all day -- but it was CFL football (try to guess what that acronym stands for).

As a side note, here's some funny things about the CFL:

1. There's like eight teams total. I wonder if they just play each other 12 times and then call it a season
2. They have funny team names: The Eskimos, Alouettes (yeah, that's Montreal), The Blue Bombers, Argonauts. I could go on, but that's already half the teams...
3. The field is longer and wider than NFL fields
4. There are only three downs instead of four

Other Observations on Canada:

O Canada!
When I first moved here, I was so excited every time I saw words like colour and chequing (as in chequing account) and any other Canadian spelling. I was like a giddy child. It was a little reminder that, "Oh yeah, I live in another country." But now I don't even think about it. The excitement wore off. Although I have become accustomed to those spellings, I have not converted to writing "Canadian". I do make an effort to write the 'correct' spelling when I'm dealing with school papers or RA stuff. I try to remember to insert u's next to o's. I try to remember r before e. I try to remember all the double l's -- it's not traveling, it's travelling. It's not counseling, it's counselling. But other than school stuff, I don't use those spellings. I have found that here and there I have put a Canadian spelling in an e-mail to a friend, but for the most part, I still have my Yankee spelling.

And they pronounce the letter Z as "zed". As in "From A to Zed". I don't think that will ever sound normal to me.

When I first moved here, I forgot I lived in Canada. This was about the time the movie Talladega Nights was coming out. I remember seeing a commercial for it and the movie-voice-guy said "Talladega Nights is the #1 movie in Canada!" I actually thought that was a joke. Like they were trying to be funny -- "This movie is number one in CANADA! CANADIANS seem to like it! HAHAHA!" But then I realized they were simply just saying it was the number one movie in Canada because I lived in Canada, and it's not weird to hear that.

Canadians really do say "eh" a lot. I find it often doesn't really have a purpose, it really is just inserted in there for comfort. People add "eh" even when they're not expecting a response from you.

They don't actually say "a-boot". But they do in fact pronounce "about" differently. It's hard to write out, but it's kind of like "a-bow-oot" (pronounce bow as in 'bow your head').

French and English on products.

Kilometres (that was on purpose) per hour signs! When I first got here I had to learn to re-adjust my eyes so that I was looking at the small numbers on my speedometer (which are KPH) instead of the big numbers (which are MPH). When I go back to the states, and I cross into Washington, it takes me a second to be like "oh miles per hour" and I realize why everyone is passing me.

Most web addresses end in .ca ("dot c-a" is the phrase). Also in regards to websites, sometimes I'm re-directed to the "Canadian version" of a page -- even if I don't want to. "Expedia.com? I think you mean Expedia.ca", says my internet, snidely. There's Canadian i-tunes music store, canadian google, and so on. And there's ceratain US websites I can't access with my Canadian IP address. You know how on the network station websites (CBS, ABC, NBC) they have the option where you can watch full episodes of their shows on their website -- not if you're in Canada. A page comes up that says something like "These pages are intended from access only within the United States." Oh snap.

The legal drinking age here is 19
The money here is very pretty. The dollar bills are colorful, interesting pictures, cool seals. It took me a little bit to get used to what color represented what dollar bill. Blue is $5. Purple is $10. Green is $20. Red is $50. $100 is like a sick brownish color. And I have no idea who the people are on the bills (other than Queen Elizabeth II -- that saucy wench). At first I felt like I was handing people fake money. Monopoly money. I was so used to just having green dollar bills.
Also, it took me a little bit to get used to the dollar coins (Loonie and Toonie - $1 and $2, respectively). I feel weird handing someone two coins and having that equal $4. I feel like I'm ripping them off. Also, in the U.S. I totally ignored my coin purse half the time. I would just shove loose change in there. At any given point I would have about a dollar in change. In Canada, I sometimes find $10 in change in my coin purse. I have to pay lots of attention to that coin purse.

Canada and the US are very similiar in brand products (e.g., food). However, there are certain U.S. brands I can't find here. For example, I don't think they have Butterfingers here. They don't have Keebler Elf products here. It's hard to find my scent of Secret deodorant here. What can I say...I'm really roughing it out here! On the other hand, there are some Canadian-unique products, this especially seems to be the case with candy. And Ketchup chips.

Canadians love their Poutine: Melted cheese curds on fries, topped with gravy. Sometimes dipped in mayonnaise. My arteries are clogging just writing about it

Smarties are a Canadian candy that is similar to M&Ms, however Smarties have more of a candy-coated shell and less chocolate. And brighter colors.

Oh yeah and it's really hard to find sticks of butter here. What's common is a solid block of butter -- like an 8 X 11 block of butter. *Shivers*

An upside of living in Canada is that I get to watch double the reality shows (or maybe that's not an upside...). I get to watch American Idol and Canadian Idol. America's Next Top Model and Canada's Next Top Model. Project Runway and Project Runway Canada. What's interesting is that on Canada's Next Top Model (at least the 2nd season), Jay Manuel is the host. On Canadian Idol the contestant can play an instrument if they want -- which is very cool. The downside is that every douchebag in Canada with an acoustic guitar tries out. Oh and for the auditions, if they make it through, the judges say "You're going to Toronto!!" instead of Hollywood. That will also always sound weird to me.

A Day in the Life

Eagan and I experienced another celebrity sighting last week. Add this to our list of impressive C/D/E list celebrities we've seen in the past few years (like the guy who played Rufio from Hook -- what a find!). This time it was Toby from The Office! I would say his real name (Paul Lieberstein), but then nobody would know who he was (myself included, I only found out his name after I looked it up on imdb).

"Your name is Toby, boy"

The sighting was at a Vancouver International Film Festival screening. Eagan and I were sitting in the theatre when Eagan said "Hey, it's Toby from The Office!" My first thought was, We don't work with anyone named Toby. Then I looked towards the aisle and there was Paul Lieberstein! He looks exactly the same in person as he does on TV. He's the height I imagined; the weight I imagined; he has the exact same hair; and the same droopy, sad eyes with light eyelashes (go team Light Eyelashes!). He was in street clothes (no Armani suit, Paul?) -- a baggy, gray sweatshirt hoody, jeans (the kind of 'comfortable jeans' that he's probably had for years and wears all the time...the kind that would have a wallet indent in the back pocket), and tennis shoes. A little on the frumpy side, if you asked me.
What I thought was unusual was that he was just there to watch the movie. He wasn't in the movie, wasn't involved in the writing or producing of the movie. Nobody made an announcement of "...and with us in the audience is Paul Lieberstein..." He was just, like, an average person watching a film festival movie on a Sunday afternoon. There was no fanfare. I think only Eagan and I recognized him (as I mentioned, it was a Sunday afternoon movie -- which means lots of old people).
He came in with a lady, I'm assuming his wife. They sat down and then she left the theatre. A minute or so later, Paul switched seats to a few aisles up. He kept looking back at the theatre door, probably to catch his wife's attention when she returned to alert her to the fact that he moved. Well, it just so happened to be that I was sitting in the sight path between Paul and the door. So he kept looking back at the door, and every time he looked back I was totally staring at him. I couldn't help it. And he totally noticed. He kept looking at me with those sad, droopy eyes -- with the look of recognition that I recognized him -- and he looked kind of worried, like he was just waiting for me to do this:

But, I didn't. I only stared in a really plain way.

Eagan said he was really tempted to yell out in the middle of the movie, when the theatre was quiet, "Toby! I know you're in here!"

But, we didn't harrass him. We didn't ask for a picture or an autograph on our chest. It's not our style. My style is to just stare. But I stare with class, and don't you forget it.

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After the movie, we stopped at Dairy Queen for a treat. I was enjoying my chocolate-dipped ice cream cone when I noticed this totally depressing message on my cup:

(don't you just love the 'Little Kid Handwriting' font -- very convincing.)
Eagan's cup said something like 'Thanks DQ for ice cream and donating money. Money pays for hospital machines. And without hospital machines I wouldn't be alive."

Wow. That's depressing. While eating ice cream, I don't want to have to produce any feelings of sympathy, pity, or sadness. They just don't mix well.