I said I was going to update on the weekend and I've gotta do it while the weekend is still at hand.
OK, on Friday Tamaki and I met up with my co-workers for dinner and drinks at a Newfie bar. Tamaki is pretty good at English (you know, being an English teacher and all), but some of my co-workers talk REALLY fast and say "um" a lot. I have a hard time following sometimes, so I can imagine what it would be like if English were your second language. We left them and went for a walk to English Bay to catch up. She asked about my time in Japan, how I dealt with some of the cultural obstacles. I think she was surprised by some of the stuff I had to deal with that aren't problems here, like the inappropriate comments/actions by co-workers and the movie starness I got being a big, white girl. I mean, people in the grocery store asked to shake my hand, I often had to pose for pictures with complete strangers, signed autographs for no reason, etc. She sounded a little disappointed that people didn't really care that she was Japanese, but was amazed by how multicultural Canada actually is. I think, especially in rural areas that don't have many foreigners, Japanese people assume everyone is white in western countries. Here it's pretty hard to tell foreigners from citizens.
Saturday we met up for morning tea and gave my French friend Fabrice time to haul his ass downtown so we could all go on the bus tour of Vancouver. The tour is the cost of a minor body organ, but gave us hop on/off access for two days. I tried to quietly supplement some of what the bus driver was saying, but a woman behind my friends shushed me. Shushed! What, you don't want to know there were actually three Hotel Vancouvers? Fine. Get excited about some shitty revolving restaurant, not even the tallest one in the city. The tour made me realise that I don't like tourists that much. Tamaki wanted to go to the brewery on Granville Island, so we hopped off and bought tickets. The tour was sorta dull, but afterwards we got the four beer sampler, including an alcoholic ginger beer. We talked with some of the other tourees and I gave local tips/directions (they asked). I should totally be a tour guide. We got back onto the bus, a little tipsy, and continued on until we got to the library. After a lengthy discussion, including me having to explain to Fabrice why I no longer want to talk to our mutual friend who is a complete jackass (see one of the February blogs for details), we decided to go for Malaysian food and a movie. The movie: Over the Hedge. Steve Carell? Hilarious. I don't know what kind of hyperactive animal he was, a squirrel maybe, but the best scene of the whole movie was when the other animals gave him a caffeinated drink to implement the final plan. It was brilliant. Except that Avril Lavigne was in it.
Yesterday Tamaki and I went for dim sum in Chinatown. I could seriously go for dim sum weekly and probably wouldn't get sick of it. The one server kept talking to Tamaki, even though I was the one who ordered stuff and Tamaki had never been for dim sum and had no idea what the girl was talking about. I find this sort of thing amusing. We went for another ride on the bus, this time stopping in Stanley Park to walk around a bit. After a while the weather started turning, so we decided to take the Sea Bus to Lonsdale to have a bite at the Quay. As exciting as it sounds. By this time I was feeling a bit deadly, the being nice for two whole days, and so we went for a hot chocolate and then she headed back to the hostel and I went home.
My successor in Japan sent an email to say she and her husband and baby would probably be moving to Canada this summer and her husband's family would be coming for a visit, and could I guide them around for a day? It will be hilarious good times trying to tour them in Japanese; my Japanese skills suck now.
Have you been to the HMV at Burrard and Robson lately? The bear on the corner is AWESOME! Easily the most interesting of all the bears in the city.
Holy crap, my head hurts. I'm totally going to bed.
Currently listening :
Le Mans / Entresemana
By Le Mans
Release date: 24 March, 1998
No comments:
Post a Comment