Towers, Starbucks and Welcomes

A couple of days since my last post. Yesterday was a funny day. I was bored all morning, so I signed up for a campus tour. Met a couple of people there, while going around the campus. Heard a few cool stories about things. The best few being about the Clock tower and the Engineering department.

The engineering department have done some cool things. One of which was having a VW Beetle off the Golden Gate Bridge (in San Fransisco). Another such thing was to put a VW on top of the clock tower. Here's a picture of the tower:

Getting a VW up there is some feat. They've also managed to paint the entire back side of the tower red.

It's moments like these I'm proud to be (learning to be) an engineer.

The other funny (if slightly sad) story about the clock tower is to do with animal rights activists. As a protest, they decided to take a cow to the top of the tower. They did this by taking it up the stairs. This was all well and good. They got the attention of people, having a cow at the top of the tallest structure on campus is eye-grabbing. Unfortunately, cows can't walk down stairs. Something to do with missing the Achilles Tendon apparently. Thus they had to kill the cow. Bugger.

So the tour also took us around the rest of the campus. Apparently that library I showed you earlier is meant to be the shape of a book lying flat. It's also 7 stories tall (3 or 4 below ground) and is one of 9 on the campus. They also have a performing arts hall which is shaped like a cello with a adjustable roof (it has really good acoustics - I was in there today), and the biology building looks like a cell from above (it has plants and things organised to represent the nucleus, etc =p I don't have a picture, but I'll try to get one later for you.

Apparently they like their buildings shaped like things here.

On the tour I met Cooper, a guy on exchange here from England. We went to Starbucks after, and for dinner at Cafe Crepe after that. Following that was a trip to a party of sorts (maybe 8-10 people) in the common room of the lowest floor of one of the buildings here. There was music, dancing and, despite limited alcohol and drinking, a girl that managed to get rather drunk after an hour.

A fairly late night so I slept in this morning, wondered around campus a bit and then started orientation. After the first lecture-like thing (well done, but not particularly exciting), I went to Starbucks again.

It should be noted here that I followed people. Not by choice this time =P However, at this rate I'll have tried everything on the menu in a matter of weeks.

So, this was a story. Of the group of 4 people, I ordered second: A tall (small) Java Chip Frappacino. The first guy's drink came out, then the other two, followed by two or three more of people behind them. At this point the employee asks what I was waiting on, and I told him. So I kinda expected to get my drink fairly soon.

I did, except it was upsized to the biggest size, and I was given a voucher for a free drink.

'twas a very large cup. Larger than anything in Australia (I think. I ordered the largest size just before I left, and I don't think it was that big). That picture is Cooper holding a small (the size I ordered) and the one that was given to me. It was pretty sickening. I don't think I'll be having any more for a while =P

After managing to get my way through that drink (with a little bit of help), we had a welcome performance thingo in the cello-shaped performing arts center. A group which was kinda folk music performed, and the MCs were rather entertaining.

After this was the meeting of our orientation group, which involved the playing of a few lame games, and then we went to the beach. Managed to meet a lot of new people, even though the beach was a little subdued.

The sunset was fantastic though. I guess I'll just show you pictures =P




It was even better in real life. Unbelievable.

And that was my last couple of days. The other cool thing I've seen was a bird picking at a rubbish bin. Sure, you see that in Australia, but this bird was able to pick up a plastic bag, tip it upside down, and jiggle it so the stuff inside fell out. That's one clever bird. I have a video if it which I might compress and show you people later.

Anyways, tomorrow is more orientation. I'll post again sometime soon =)

Truth conquers soley by force of its own truth entering the mind gently but with power

.... or Veritas vi Veritatis.

Ok, so that had nothing to do with this post. But it is the motto of John XXIII College (the one that Brendan's staying at). Very concise, right? =P

So shopping in Canada sucks. By shopping I mean buying stuff. Two reasons:



1) Canada has 1 cent coins. One cent coins are bad. Very bad. They also have 5 cent coins, which happen to be bigger than the 10 cent coins, but only slightly smaller than the 25 cent coins. And then 1 dollar and two dollar denominations. This leads to me being very confused while paying for stuff.

Before dinner I had 16 one-cent coins, 25 cents in 5 cent coins, 2 ten-cent coins, four 25-cent coins, a dollar and three twos. My wallet was very full. Then I had the bright idea of paying the majority of that for my meal tonight (Beef Brisket and Wonton Noodle Soup if anyone's interested - not particularly good - the fortune cookie note is in that first picture). Meal was $6.10, so I left a small tip, maybe 20-30 cents or something. I got rid of all my 1 cent coins =D Unfortunately I then made a purchase of $3.51. I now have 4 one-cent coins =(

One cent coins suck.

2) TAX. I don't mind paying the tax. I really don't. It's the fact that sometimes in a shop, they list the price tax not included, and sometimes they do. So, in actual fact, I have no idea how much my purchase is going to cost me. On top of this, apparently there are two taxes, a 7% Provincial Services Tax, and a 6% Goods and Services Tax. I have no idea when either of these apply.

However, this doesn't explain why I was charged 12 cents on item "PET ENV" and 60 cents on item "PET DEP" when I purchased some water with a listed price of $2.79. This makes me confused.

Anyhow, managed to bus it into Vancouver today. Well, by into Vancouver I mean into the city where the shops and stuff are. Poked around a bit, but didn't really do too much. Found the Art Gallery and the Library (another cool looking building), but it so happened that the Librarian staff were on strike. And yes, I was considering going inside =P Art gallery was also considered, until I saw the $14 admission fee.

Library

Art Gallery

Walked around what I reckon was a main street of some sort, and had my first Japanese Meal in Canada. Unfortunately I was slightly underwhelmed but it was fairly cheap, and I had a "Blueberry Watermelon Wisdom" juice, which gave me two helpful hints: "Foresight is like hindsight with a future" and "Seek the truth and spit out the seeds." No idea what they mean, but oh well =P

Also doing the jet-lag thing at the moment. Thought it wasn't too bad, even though I woke up at 3 am yesterday (I got on the computer for an hour and went back to bed). Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it, and I woke up at 5 am this morning, and didn't go back to bed. Had a nap this afternoon though, so I'm semi-awake.

And as promised, pictures of my room. I tidied everything up by shoving it into those nice big drawers.

That one's from my door. Bed with nice blue bedsheets, table's pretty good.


From the other angle, above my bed. That's the closet, which is a little older, but that's hardly a problem.

And that's it for today. I'm gonna sleep soon I guess. Don't know what I'm doing tomorrow...

[And apologies to all those who I left hanging last night. My internet died and it turns out I hadn't set it up properly. My bad =P]

Goodbyes are hard

I haven't quite figured out whether going visiting people before I came to Canada was a good thing or a bad thing.

On the up-side, I managed to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen for a little while (some longer than others), and go to say goodbye to them all. On the down-side, I had to say goodbye to them all.

The real point I have to consider is whether going from one place to another, always with another person in mind was a good thing or not. Was it good that I was partially distracted when saying goodbye to each person, and had little time to consider it before I moved on? I've managed to get to UBC ok, met a few people (even though there's only two people on my floor at the moment), had time to look around campus and things like that. But I'm not as prepared as I could've been - my papers are everywhere - and I'm surprised that I haven't forgotten something vital (or it hasn't been brought to my attention as yet).

Goodbyes are hard, but I'm not sure whether four goodbyes are harder as yet...maybe I'll think about it for a little bit longer.

So, I'm here on campus, in my room, which is pretty nice - I'm happy with it. 4th Floor of Mackenzie house, Place Vanier.


That's the outside of my room. My room is the top right one (excluding the little bit of a window you can see in the top right corner). It looks into a couple of trees, so the view isn't that great, but it's bearable. The inside of the room is pretty good. The table and bed are fairly new, and are pretty good, but the closet is pretty old. Still in pretty good condition though.

My mailing address is:

Box Number 412
1935 Lower Mall
Vancouver, BC. V6T 1X1

Not that anyone will be sending me mail, but it's there for reference. Please don't send me bombs or anything, it'd be a bit hard to explain.

I'll show you a photo of the inside of my room later, because the ones I have at the moment picture my room in a fairly messy state.

Anyways, as I was saying in my last post, I go to Vancouver and took forever to get a shuttle bus. Took a drive through the traffic (by this time it was past 4 pm), and to UBC. It was at this point I realised probably my first real thought about Canada since I got here - they drive on the other side of the road =o This means that for the past two days I've been looking on the wrong side of the road for cars (still trying to get used to it). Hopefully I will before I get hit by one.

Continuing my story, we got on campus, and I didn't notice anything different. We had to be told we were there, which was a bit weird.

The campus is huge. Not as huge as I imagined it, but still pretty good. It takes a good 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It's like a little town. Fair few streets there. It seems a little empty, but there are a lot of trees, which are very tall, and therefore I'm guessing have been there for a long time.

There's a pic of the library, which looks pretty cool to me. Haven't been inside as yet.

Anyways, had dinner last night after a long day. Was very hungry by that time - my meals had been screwed up by the time changes and the waiting and what-not. Made my first purchase with Canadian money. It was a Pita from some place with Pita in its name. It was pretty good, although spoilt by the fact that the pita itself was just something out of a plastic bag that anyone could buy from the nearest Safeway (or Woolthworths or whatever).


Salad was pretty good - you got to choose your own, and I imagine you could make it taste quite different even if the same meat was used.

Umm... today I managed to sort a couple of things out. Bank account was made (now it just needs money), got my student card and UPass (bus ticket), and a sim card for my phone. I've got a feeling I was slightly ripped off though - $25 for the SIM card itself, a $50 'service fee' (he took 5 minutes to punch some numbers into a computer), PLUS tax. That's another thing I don't like around here - taxes are sometimes included in the price, and sometimes not. Me confused by it all =P

On top of that, I had to buy credit - which had a tax of some sort on it as well.

Having said that, the call rates are much cheaper than in Australia, so I guess I'll deal with it.

Watched a Anger Management at International House this evening, and then have come back to my computer, where I've chatted and stuff.

Probably about time to go to bed. Hopefully I'll go into Vancouver properly tomorrow and have a poke around.

And here's a picture of a squirrel which I saw running about campus today =P

Justin (ACTUALLY) in Canada

So I've arrived in Canada, managing to be a fair bit behind in my blog already, which is kinda sad and doesn't really bode well for the rest of the trip, but I'll make an effort to keep up with it.

Definitely enjoyed my time in Melbourne. Won't make too detailed a post, but I went to see a movie (License to Wed... don't see it. I almost fell asleep - twice), went to St Kilda Beach (and took 452 photos, which was cropped down to 260-something I think), caught up with Christopher, Jiapei (for about 2 seconds) and Jean, and did A LOT of wandering around the city. Here are a couple of random photos so you don't feel left out:


My favourite of the 452 that we took at St Kilda beach. Very cliche, but still a nice shot. Had a heap of other nice ones, which I'll either throw in when I don't have anything else to post, or share with you when I get back.
With Chris in his college. After going out for food and being owned at fooseball (whoever thought that that game could involve so much skill), had a nice chat before being set upon by Jiapei - as energetic and hyper as ever. Also, Melbourne's public transport system failed us that night, but it worked out ok in the end...
Had lunch with Jean at a nice Japanese place. Good to catch up with Jean too (sounds like she's working too hard though =P)


With my grandma (=
And with my uncle, aunt and two out of three cousins (Khay suuuuuucks =P)

Left for Canada this morning... or yesterday morning, time differences are weird.

Got to the airport at the bright and early time of 4:45am, for the 6 am flight. Got to Sydney, and had to check in again. Waited ages for that before getting on the plane, and fell asleep almost immediately. Woke up an hour later and we were in the air. Managed to get a seat squeezed in between two businessmen - one of whom had bad breath and played Mah Jong the entire flight.

Got to Japan eventually and did the whole "Lost at the airport thingo." Managed to find Aileen, who also happened to be going to Vancouver, so things were pretty easy from there.



That's Aileen. I reckon I look sleazy in this photo, but that other one I took was blurry =(

Anyways, on the flight got a window seat near the back, which meant extra legroom, and sat next to Matt, who is becoming a personal trainer or something. Better company than the last flight at least =P

So got to Vancouver, and after waiting half an hour to get through customs, found my bag and got out. Waited close to two hours (possibly longer now that I think about it) for the shuttlebus to get there and load up, and made it to college.

I'll finish this story later... I wanna get to bed now. But yes, I'm here in one piece. =)

Canberra and Sydney in Photos, Part 2

More photos from my time in Canberra and Sydney... (click to enlarge)

There's a lot of them... so sorry for the bandwidth usage! (although it shouldn't be too large I hope)

Can't see it really well, but that's Brendan in the bottom left and those are black and white versions of a whole bunch of flags outside the Contempory Art Museum - The photos of the Canada flag I took were kinda dodgy. It should be windier!


Jumping to dinner, this is Bensen trying to take photos through the kitchen window.

Xina, Bin and David over the kitchen sink
Not sure what I was doing there.. but that's a bunch of us in the kitchen
Xina, Linda and Grace peeling potatoes for the salad.

Chocolate covered strawberries =D
At the Fish Markets - the platter was really good (as was the drink - you would hope so for $4)
Group photo at the market - it took a lot of shots to get a decent one.
It looks like London! Not that I've been there, but it was very, very wet.
David with his red bean dessert thingo

The dessert that Brendan and I shared - Orange Chocolate something... I forget the proper name. Very nice though.
Us in the rain
Long exposure shot - I've taken way too many of these, but this one turned out rather well - the non-moving bits are pretty clear, and without a tripod too =D
Us in the lift - this was a fun photo to take. I really like it too.
At the bus stop thingo

Last shot of Bensen, Linda, David and Grace (as we're about to get on the bus)
Me and Brendan in Canberra, with our bus behind us (or it could've been the other bus, I forget, but that's kinda irrelevant anyways)
A very cool model of Canberra - the buildings (including Brendan's college) are all accurate (shape-wise). The light show that accompianied the model was very cool too. I learnt a lot about how Canberra was designed - and how badly this design was executed.
The original 'concept' design of Canberra - a lot more organised than it actually is. The circles are actually circular too =P
Parliment shot thingo
Canada Flag =D
I just like the description of Canada at the bottom - and the cool reflection
Shot from across the river of Parliment - slightly bland really.
Shadow shot - how unoriginal
ANU... some walkway thingo. Kinda cool. Union is just down those steps (if you can see them)
Brendan and I in city centre, with the cool metal cushion behind us - it was covered in graffiti and someone's leftover dinner so I didn't wanna get too close.
That reflector is actually stuck there...
Stars
More stars and trees and stuff
Telstra Tower.. I'll get up there one day



Little artsy shots with Brendan. I've got the shots from his perspective too, I'll post them later.

Anyways, I leave for Canada very soon, and I've still got to sleep, so I'll cut this post short here. I haven't posted anything about Melbourne, and I'm about to leave, so I'm a little behind - hopefully I'll have a little bit of time where I can catch up on my posts.

See you all later.