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.

---

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.