My deepest apologies for not faithfully keeping up with this blog. Vancouver has recently been cursed with hot, humid weather, which is unusual for this area. It has consistently been 30 degrees celsius the past few days (yes, CELSIUS. I am now accustomed to using the metric system. For those of you who are curious, figure out what 30 degrees celsius is. If you're lazy, you just need to know it's very hot. very hot indeed). This heatwave is supposedly the hottest it has ever been in a very long time here. What makes the heat even more unbearable, however, is the fact that most buildings, homes, etc. do not have AC; the weather is usually mild and cool, so there's no need for AC in the buildings. I can't breath when I'm sleeping, so I've been camping in our living room, where it is perhaps half a degree cooler. I hope you're not surprised to read that I am not smiling right now.

Last week, we went to English Bay, Vancouver's hottest beach spot. I wasn't particularly impressed witht he beach; the sand was terrible, the water was filthy, the waves weren't exactly waves, and it wasn't exactly a beach either--it was a bay. But nevertheless, we had a great time! The beach is located right near the city and there were, of course, mountains too, so the scene was different compared to most beaches I'm used to. I'll admit though--I'd definitely prefer New Jersey's beaches any day. I'll put pictures up later

Lot's of events recently--a Lock-In, a carwash, a few softball games, aimless get-togethers. It feels like play day everyday! and I'm loving it. Except for this heat.

stop

10:30am right now. I miss home at 10:30am right now. Living with no AC in this heat makes me realize that I miss home at 10:30 right now. I would like to inform you that living with no AC in this heat makes me realize that I miss home at 10:30am right now.

I promised to dedicate this blog about the features of my home/habitat. But I'm going to break that promise (1) because it is hot. The palms of my hands are sweating on my laptop and I don't like that. (2) for some reason, my internet connection is slow today. Maybe the heat is making everything move in slow motion today. (3) After weeks of waiting, our belongings finally arrived last Thursday. And in the true Lim family style, we have yet to unpack everything. Ergo, our house is a living nightmare at the moment. To take pictures of the current state of our home would be humiliating. (4) It's hot.

The end.

stop

The weather has decided to return to its normal state today. I promise a more interesting blog is on its way.

Ever since I've been here, I feel as though time doesn't exist. Which is great, but sometimes it's like I'm not living in reality. But then again, that's how summer should be like, no? Enjoying the moment you're in and the people you're with and the simple things that you're doing. Such as trying to solve the New York Times crossword puzzles and having sudoko battles with your sister.

We went out and about during the past couple days. On Monday, my family and I went downtown to have some sushi at a place called Toyama. The sushi here is cheap and fantastic! If any of you happen to visit me, I would definitely take you to lunch here.

Lunch, all you can eat sushi = $11 = one happy camper

We walked around after lunch for a little while but we didn't stay long enough for me to really get a good sense of the city. With the tall buildings on the side and the many trolley lines above me, I felt a little caged. It's huge and we only walked a few blocks, so I'm gonna have to go back downtown if I want to write anything worthwhile about the city. I'm planning on going to the ever so famous Stanley Park some time soon, so stay tuned!

this is what i mean by "caged"

ok, so it turns out weed isn't exactly legal here. but, as you can see, it's "openly abundant"

After lunch, we decided to drive up Cypress Mountain, one of the many mountains nearby. The whole way up, Debbie kept saying "It's Twilight!" It was rather grey that day, so it did have this Twilight-ish, mysterious feel. When we got pretty high up the mountain, we were literally driving in clouds. And it was cold.

There was a stop in the middle of the mountain where you could see the city down below. Granted, it was cloudy that day, but you could tell the city was under a lot of smog. The scene was beautiful, nevertheless!

Twilight, no?

Just yesterday, my sister and I went out with our friends to visit the University of British Columbia. A lot of it was under construction, but you could definitely feel the collegiate atmosphere. It's huge, especially compared to Haverford's tiny campus (please note: bigger does not in any way mean better). haha :)

the "Harry Potter" room. The wall was covered with portraits

We went to the Museum of Anthropology where we spent too much money and too little time to look at all the pretty things in there. A good portion of the museum was dedicated to the amazing art of the First Nations. In my very first post, I had mentioned something about Eskimo art at the airport. Turns out, that's one of the many stupid things we silly Americans assume. I was kindly corrected by a friend that it was First Nation art (Inuit or Aboriginal...I forget) not Eskimo art.

These "masks" are actually dishes for feasts.

"The Raven" one of the most famous sculptures in the museum.

They're very detailed with their body parts

This guy was carving a moon mask for the 2010 Winter Olympics!

There were a lot of beautiful totem poles

but the huge window made it hard for me to

get all the pretty colors. But you can tell

they were enormous, eh?

There were several gardens on campus, but we only went to one of them--it was free. Here's a group shot with (almost) everyone in our youth group.

I see these guys like...everyday.

And because I'm feeling lazy.........the end.

The next blog will be about features of my new habitat.

The people I've met here have been strictly limited to the people at my dad's new church. They are FANTASTIC and I love'em. I wish you YSY people could meet them and learn from them. All of them speak either decent or wonderful Korean, and they all speak perfect English. They have this really carefree attitude, but at the same time, they are incredibly respectful to the adults. And whereas Koreans on the East coast tend to ignore younger kids and not hang out with other age groups, the kids are so sweet to each other. And the older kids are so nice to younger kids. I wish I met them much earlier in life. And I like the way they speak-- It's not like they speak with drastic accents or anything, but I notice little things that make me smile :)

On our very first day we went out to the movies with our new friends. It was so easy to just get along and hang out! The mall we went to was huge. Another thing that was huge was the concentration of different kinds of Asians. It kind of made me feel uncomfortable--it was odd seeing so many Asians in a huge public setting. We live in this town called Surrey, and because there's a big Indian population in the area, the kids here dubbed a nickname: Surrey-Curry.

Speaking of curry, since there was a high demand for an entry on food, I guess I'll try to focus on that today. We haven't had much time to try out the different types of cuisine here, but here are a few things I've taken pictures of:

One of the first things our new friends wanted my siblings and me to try was Poutine, which is basically fries covered with gravy sauce and cheese. It sounds gross and looks gross, but apparently it's a Canadian favorite. It wasn't phenomenal or anything, but it was perfectly satisfying in a very unhealthy way. I know a few of you who would enjoy it.

Poutine

Some of you like to eat potato chips with ketchup. Well, in Canada, there's no need to do that because they have ketchup chips. That's right. Ketchup chips. It's just like sour cream-n-onion chips, only ketchup flavored. Again, I'm not a fan. They also have a flavor called all dressed chips. It's basically every flavor you can think of -- sour cream-n-onion, ketchup, cheddar, vinegar etc -- all on one chip. It's explosive. And my mouth was a little confused when I first tried them. But I think I might grow to like them.

We haven't had much of a chance to go out for dinner yet, especially because my dad is much busier, but my family went out to White Spot, our first Canadian restaurant on Monday. White Spot seemed like the typical family restaurant. Like a Friendly's or TGI's. The food wasn't that great, but I really enjoyed the appetizers! I guess, because there are so many Indian people here, the menu incorporated bits of Indian cuisine, along with the usual Italian and American food. For those who are familiar with Indian food, you'll know that you typically start with Naan bread. White Spot serves Naan bread with three different kinds of sauces-- spicy mayo, tomato lemony garlic stuff, and a creamy garlicy sauce (my favorite). We also started with sweet potato fries, which also came along with spicy mayo sauce. I was hesitant about the spicy mayo on sweet potatos but we ended up killing that dish in 5 minutes.

Naan Bread

Sweet Potato Fries with spicy mayo

There are a lot of Greek restaurants here, which is exciting since I've never tried Greek food. And I also heard that the seafood here is amazing.

I'll include more snippets about food as I slowly encounter them.

Exactly a week has gone by since we moved to Canada, so obviously a good amount of events have happened. but I guess it's always best if you start from the beginning, right?

Moving Day

After about 4 hours of sleep, we woke up on the day of the flight at about 7am to finish cleaning out the house. There were still last minute brushups we needed to finish, LOTS of trash to throw out, lots of people taking our furniture, lots of vacuuming, and we were still packing. Amazingly, and I swear this was by the grace of God because if someone came into our house that morning, they would never have guessed we were moving to a different country, we finished and we were out to the Philly airport.

our very empty room

the few outside my good ol' window

After checking in and all that jazz, we were aboard our first plane, from Philly to Chicago. We sat in this tiny plane for 4 hours until the pilot finally announced, "Folks, it looks like we're not taking off afterall due to inclement weather." During those four hours, I caught up on some sleep and finished Agatha Christie's And Then There were None, which I really enjoyed and recommend you read if you're just sitting around being bored.

So we got off the plane and we found out the next flight to Chicago was the next day at 6am. My siblings and I were like, "EFF MY LIFE." and I think my parents were pretty much thinking along the same lines. They figured there had to be another way out, so they found this ol' guy who looked experienced, and he ended up getting us tickets, first to Toronto, which was going to leave within that very hour, and then Vancouver. On the flight to Toronto, I sat with a very elegant, old, Canadian woman who had a slight British accent. We discussed all things being Canadian and eventually ended up with nothing else to talk about. To avoid those awkward glances and shifts of movement that you have after meeting strangers, I started reading Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, which I found to be a rather sad book, full of emo ideas, and depressing statements on life. But it's a CRAZY read. and I recommend you read this book too. I promise you'll feel like someone slapped you when you weren't looking.

waiting four hours in a tiny plane + still in Philly = boooo

looking rather hopeless after we got out of that silly plane.

Just so you know, flying from Philly to Toronto only takes 55 minutes. The bag checker inner peoples were the first Canadians we encountered, and I immediately appreciated their way of life: my brother was rushing through the bag check, and telling me to hurry up, when the guy checking our bags stopped him and simply put his finger to his mouth, and told him, "Shhh. Hey--there's no need to rush. Take your time."

I knew I arrived in Canada :)

Take off from Philadelphia!

Hello, Toronto!

picking up our bags in Toronto

On the flight from Toronto to Vancouver, we had the lovely surprise of finding out that we had business class seats. 'Twas a great way to end an exhausting day. I enjoyed a decent meal, and watched "He's Just Not that into You" and "Duplicity," which were both lame. Don't bother watching those movies, if you haven't already. We finally landed in Vancouver at 12:45am,Pacific time. so for you Eastern time folks, that would be 3:45am. The Vancouver airport, by the way, is STUNNING. There are beautiful fountains with great, tall Eskimo art and sculptures. I wish I took pictures, but I was too tired to reach into my bag. A lot of it was in construction, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Hello, Vancouver!

we happened to pass by this on our way to our new house

We were greeted by a crowd of adults from our new church who came to welcome us and escort us to our new home, which was really nice. We finally arrived at our new house at 2:30am.

In conclusion, after running through a hectic day on only 4 hours of sleep, three mountainous pimples invited themselves on the lower half of my face.

the end.

coming up next: canadian cuisine, the bizarre features of our new home, opinions about the place and the people!

if you have specific questions or requests about something Canadian, feel free to tell me! that way i have something to look for/think about.