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."

---

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

---

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.