Flashback: 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (Part 1)
Apuh. This is such an overdue post. Finally, you all can have a chance to get the “insights” on all the events, happenings and highlights of the 2010 Winter Olympics that took place in Vancouver last February!
I was so lucky to be part of the celebration, even though I wasn’t able to attend any of the games or to volunteer in the Olympics related events. People from all around the world flocked to this city not only to support the athletes from their home countries, but also to enjoy the 2-week whirlwind of fun.
Seriously, if you were in Vancouver or anywhere near Vancouver during the Olympic period, had the time and leisure to go to and be part of the celebration with all tourists and Vancouverites, but you didn’t just because you had “more important stuff to do” or “not interested”, you are either a) stupid, b) a patient with some kind of social phobia or c) …… THERE’S JUST SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!!!
Like, come on! It’s not like your city is gonna host another Olympic in 20 or 30 years time. You probably only have 1 chance to witness and be part of the Olympics that is hosted by your city first hand throughout your life. Like I said, I was really lucky to be part of it; it probably was my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I sure grabbed onto it really tightly. I enjoyed every freakin’ moment of it!
OK, enough with all the yakking, let’s start!
Torch relay
Every Olympic has a torch relay, Vancouver 2010 was no exception. The Olympic flame originated from Ancient Olympia, Greece (the first ever Olympics were held here). The flame is carried by a torch from Greece to the host city of the games. I had the opportunity to witness the torch relay as UBC was part of the route for the relay one day before the opening ceremony (11th February 2010)! Me and my friends waited for the torch somewhere along Main Mall, but we moved to the front of the Biological Sciences building to look what was all the ruckus going on at the intersection (our gepoh nature haha). It seemed like there was a group of anti-Olympics students protesting. There were police officers controlling the group, other people eventually filled up that area (people were gepoh too =_=), causing us to lose the spot that we originally had.
Despite being almost soaking wet because of the drizzle, we were all so excited and busy setting up our cameras so that we could immortalize the glorious moment of the Olympic flame being passed in UBC. When the volunteers received the alert on the arrival of the flame, the protesters seemed to sensed that the torch was coming and there was a slight commotion, causing the policemen to guard up and forcefully “pushed” the crowd to the side of the road.
Policeman at work.
Wet and crowded.
Protesters.
At around 6.20pm, the torch finally came. There were fire engines, police cars, police bikes, Vancouver 2010 vans and other vehicles roaming over Main Mall to clear the road for the torch bearer (very 大阵仗). One of fire engines pulled out the honk all of the sudden wth, which made me jumped for a bit.
Fire truck.
Vancouver 2010 van.
I saw the torch bearer at the corner of my eye, got my camera ready and was on a standby mode. People were cheering their lungs out and clapping like crazy. But somehow, when the torch bearer was running towards me, I couldn’t manage to snap a good picture of him, until he went pass me. He was running very fast, in just a blink of an eye, the guy was gone. !@#$%^&* My friends didn’t get the pictures either. I remember seeing the dimmed flame on the white, slender torch. The torch bearer (not sure what’s his name) was in a crisp white Vancouver 2010 rain suit. He looked somewhat irritated and impatient to me, because he didn’t smile and give a friendly wave to the crowd. Hmm, probably the camera wasn’t rolling? Or he was just pissed because it was raining like there was no tomorrow.
Anyway, there was a Main Celebration Site in our school (near the UBC Aquatic Centre) with concerts and interactive booths. The crowd dispersed and flocked to the site. It was like a giant party hole with people (and parasols) everywhere.
Time to parteeehhh!
Free concert.
Wasn’t interested in the concert though, didn’t know any of the indie (I think) bands (someofthemsinglikemoaninganimals O.O).
Imitated moon???
Took this picture in front of the UBC bookstore. I wanted to take one home!
That sums up the “exciting” torch relay happening in UBC!
*Gah, I hate taking pictures at night using my camera. Need to invest in one that takes good pics under low light condition.*
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony of the Olympics took place in Vancouver BC Place. I watched the live broadcast on the tiny “belly” TV at the Totem Haida lounge with my floor mates.
The ceremony lasted for 3 effin’ hours…but I survived it haha! The highlights of the whole ceremony are: a snowboarder boarded through the winter white Olympic rings (what a way to do a grand entrance!), Nikki Yanofsky singing the Canadian national anthem (powerful voice for a 16-year old, but hate her rendition of ’O Canada’), celebration dance presented by the Canadian Aborigines, opening duet by fellow Canadian singers Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado (obvious lip-synching, Bryan Adams nearly forgot his 1st line), the semi-transparent ‘ice’ Totem poles in the middle of the stadium, presentation of the migration of the world to Canada (quite metaphoric, don’t really know how to put it in words :/), modern dance, singings and so on.
Watch the entire opening ceremony here.
The whole ceremony was pretty impressive; virtual floor graphics, cool lightings and hologram displays, beautiful ceiling layout (but it reminds me too much of the ceiling layout in TVXQ’s ‘Tonight” MV). The only fail that had marred the supposed-to-be-perfect ceremony was that towards the climax of the ceremony i.e. the lighting up of the indoor cauldron, one of the Totem poles couldn’t rise up due to technical difficulties, leaving one of the torch bearers in an awkward situation. :/
You might be confused when I said the cauldron is indoors. Well before the end of the opening ceremony, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) kept the location of the cauldron a secret. Viewers and people who attended the opening ceremony thought that the “cauldron” was the one in BC Place when the torch bearers lit it up. But no one had expected that the REAL cauldron is near the Vancouver Convention Centre at Waterfront. After the indoor cauldron had been lighted, one of the torch bearers, Wayne Gretzky jogged off from the stadium towards the real outdoor cauldron and lit it (watch here).
Jom jalan-jalan!
Me and my friend went around downtown Vancouver to immerse ourselves in the Olympic mood and check out all the Olympic-related happenings.
The first thing we did was to take a look at one of the symbols of the Olympics: the cauldron.
Long long queue.
It was 11 something in the morning. You can see the people lining up to see the cauldron.
Walking along Waterfront.
We were uber excited when we inched towards the cauldron.
"There it is! There it is!"
It was all fenced up as VANOC didn’t want people, especially the anti-Olympics crew to vandalize it. So we could just look at it from afar through the metal gates. People were literally pouring into the site. It was like the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), only that the “holy grail” was the flame on some 5, no wait, 4 and a half giant shiny sticks.
Overcrowded.
More people.
We moved with the crowd towards the cauldron. People were thrilled when gazing at the structure.
2-legged terrestrials everywhere.
An artistic attempt.
The cauldron is the exact replica of the one in BC Place. I’m not sure who designed it. I had a sheer disappointment as the cauldron looked nicer on TV during nigh time. Under a bright sunny day, the cauldron looks like some poles wrapped with aluminum foil, not really a neat design, and looks kinda cheap too. I know that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. But really, VANOC? Was that the best you could do?
A closer look.
Nevertheless, we still took pictures with it. What is the Olympics without a cauldron?
Peace!
Yeah I looked happy alright.
A closer take.
Visitors could go up the roof of the one-story lookout beside the cauldron to get nearer to the Olympic flame.
Long queue also.
Line for the lookout.
A volunteer greeting the visitors.
A view from the cauldron.
After we were done with all the photo-taking, we went for a walk at Harbour Green Park near the cauldron.
The park.
Again with the peace sign.
I’m so bad at posing for pictures……
We could see the Olympic rings from the park.
White Olympic rings.
A view from the park.
Feel like jumping into the water lol.
You can see the infamous Stanley Park from the park.
Stanley Park.
We walked along the path and passed a place for yachts.
"Sampan-sampan" orang kaya hahaha!
Floating "houses"???
Man, there are so many rich peeps in Vancouver! If I ever have a limitless supply of moolah I’m definitely getting myself a yacht like the one below, sipping Perrier-Jouët and savouring caviar on it. I shall name it “Le Carmen”. XD
Mine mine mine!
Another park.
On a mail drop box.
We then walked to the busiest street in Vancouver: Robson Street.
Crocs mascot.
I feel like punching the mascot. Not sure why.
The Olympics is one of those occasions for the citizens of the host country to showoff their unbeatable pride and overflowing patriotism. The maple leaf flag suddenly became the trend of the moment as compassionate Canadians flaunted the red-and-white on their body and face to show their utmost support to their home country. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you saw the cars with a Canadian plate were painted red and white all over or there was a Canadian flag hanging out of the car windows. Those were nothing. Now brace yourself for the most hardcore stuff that you’re gonna see in your life……
BAAAAAMMMMM!!!
I know, so hardcore right?
The "sexy back" of awesome.
I bet that bug had attracted countless eyeballs from the moment the owner took it out for a ride. You probably won’t see something like this again for the rest of your life!
It looks disgusting or geli and yet interesting. I really want to know what was the owner thinking when he worked on his masterpiece.
The front.
If there was ever a prize for being the most patriotic Canadian, that honour should go to the bug’s owner. It’s sooooooo Canadian!
Give that prize to the owner already!!!
Not sure who the owner is and where was he/she at that time. The bug was parked in front of Starbucks at Robson and Thurlow. He probably was chillin’ inside Starbucks and beaming with pride when he saw people surrounding his ride.
One last photo of the bug.
The middle segment of Robson St. was barricaded, so people can walked on the 2-lane without worrying being hit by a car or the No. 5 Robson bus. The street was really crowded.
Jaywalking but we don't care!
"欢迎" or welcome from Sumi, Quatchi and Miga.
At Robson and Burrard.
Near Robson Square.
Chillin' on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Visitor Centre (info booth).
Giant Vancouver 2010 ad.
Shoes hanging from the overhead wires.
Never before Downtown Vancouver was as crowded and lively like this. I felt like I was in the wrong city or something. Seeing visitors flocking into Vancouver made me exited and pumped up!
A sea of people.
"Flooded".
One of the attractions in Downtown Vancouver was the Ziptrek. Visitors could glide 6 stories above the ground for 170 metres in the air from the Robson Square law court, without having to pay a single cent. Thinking of manning up to give this extreme activity a try? Easy! Be sure to wake up at 4 in the morning and queue for 5 hours with the other enthusiasts under the chilly temperature of 3oC. No big deal.
Zipline tower.
They only let 2 visitors to do the zipline in every run. We watched a few pairs in action *my neck hurt* and most of them glided smoothly until they reached the destination, except for this pair:
Flying fox 1: "Told ya we shouldn't have ordered the Double Quarters with extra fries." Flying fox 2: "FML."
Those 2 stopped in the middle of the wires and couldn’t glide further till the end lol. They hung in mid-air for like 15 minutes until a “rescuer” glided over to pull them back to the tower one at a time. Definitely a mortified moment for those 2, but it was a good show for the rest of us down there haha!
Robson Square.
At Robson and Howe.
Buildings in the heart of Downtown Vancouver.
There were lots of street performers along Robson St. Never wanna miss a single moment to make quick money when there’s a crowd!
Cowgirl bronze "statue".
That lady did a pretty good job.
The busiest segment of Granville Street was blocked too. Performers could showcase their “talents” along the street and the crowd formed circles around them.
At Robson and Granville.
The Chinese New Year and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics happened at the same time, so there was this event called the “LunarFest” taking place on Granville Street. There was nothing much about it, just some lanterns made by school kids and a few art pieces displayed on the street.
Lanterns on fake trees.
A dragon.
Fishy fish fish!
I wanna put that in my house!
???
Uuhhh, some kinda deformed roosters?
Vulture-human hybrid.
And my personal favourite:
Now that's what I call ART.
We went into Sears department store and saw this:
"Pin your home country!"
We just had to do this. So……
A proud Sarawakian here!
After that, we were out of Sears, back to Robson and Howe.
At Robson and Howe.
That building with the humongous Canadian flag is Crowne Plaza Hotel at West Georgia. You could immediately spot it from a few blocks away. It was under construction at that time. Who knew that you could use the giant flag made of cardboard to cover the construction and show off your everlasting love for your country at the same time? Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Clever, eh?
And another.
Love the contrast among the colours.
I spy a NBC News truck!
Crowne Plaza is actually facing the Vancouver Art Museum. Love the decor with pretty peonies on it.
Vancouver Art Museum.
The museum's fountain. Filthy.
The same Vancouver 2010 ad on TD building.
Pretty cherry blossom tree.
Visitors around me.
Old-timer bobsled.
Digital countdown clock.
CTV News live coverage booth.
We walked along West Georgia until we reached the West End. Saw these bronze statues near English Bay.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The display is called “A-Mazing Laughter” by a Chinese artist Yue Minjun (岳敏君). All of his works feature the same kind of emotion, which is the cross between a grin and a grimace. He looks exactly the same like the statues here.
Totally towering over me.
The sun emitted a golden ray before dusk loomed in. English Bay looks absolutely stunning and picturesque in the evening.
English Bay.
Million- dollar apartments.
Calmness and serenity.
A shot further.
Inukshuk.
I’ve gotta say, the Inukshuk looks like one of the autobots in Transformers, only that it’s made of huge rocks. And they even put a pair of giant Olympics signature mittens on it too.
Back view with better lighting.
One last glimpse of the sun before it disappeared.
As dusk approached, we decided to go back to Granville St. to check it out before going back to our home.
Olympic grafitti on the pedestrian pavement.
As expected, Granville St. was as busy as ever.
Granville St. at night.
We kinda walked aimlessly by following the crowd. Before we knew it, we were back at Robson Square.
Robson and Howe at night.
The roof of Robson Square underground ice-skating.
Visitors all over the place.
Busy busy busy.
There were still people doing the zipline at night. I bet the view was lovely from up there.
Zipline tower at night.
The whole Robson Square was really beautiful with all the lights and decorations.
Robson Square underground skating rink.
There was a guy doing stand-up comedy in front of the rink at that time. We found ourselves a seat at the stairs to watch him perform.
"Step right up folks!"
The guy was pretty funny. He even did some juggling too.
"Meh, these folks are so easy to be entertained."
We went back to Granville St. after the show was over.
Walking towards Granville St.
It was hockey night and Canada was competing against Switzerland. The CTV News live broadcast booth in front of Sears was surrounded by hyper ice hockey fans who were in their Team Canada hockey jersey. They cheered loudly and waved their maple leaf flags vigorously whenever the Canucks scored a puck. The Canucks won by 3-2.
"Go Canucks Go!"
Canadians sure are full of confidence.
The darker the night, the more people flocking into Granville.
The street that never sleeps, well, during the Olympics that was.
Me and my friend wondered if we could see Granville St. from the 2nd floor of the Future Shop and Winners building that is situated conveniently between Robson and Granville. So we went inside the building and got to the 2nd floor. We were awed by what we saw.
Check out the intersection!
Along Robson St.
Granville.
Amazing, eh?
Stay tuned for Part 2!
And here she is……
What? And update from moi? After……3 months???
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
Hello again ya’ll. I’m back to the blogosphere…for the second time. 好耐冇見。
Man. I suck at keeping promises, don’t I? Sooooo sooooowwwweeeeeeeeee *sniffles*
I’ve just finished all of my finals yesterday. Can’t believe that I’m done with my 1st term of my 2nd year in UBC! Time really flies, in just a blink of an eye. I kid you not.
During the start of the term, I was thinking, “Hmm, now I can relax a bit after maxing out my course credits in my 1st year, since I’m taking ONLY 3 courses this term…” My foot.
I still worked my ass off this term. Even though I had the rest of the day off after 9am for Mondays and Wednesdays (an hour of Biochemistry 300), I still couldn’t loosen up since my lovely (note the sarcasm) LFS 250 was getting in the way. That is a 6-credit course, from 2-6pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Yes, 4 hours straight for each class. Bloody brutal. Oh, and I had Physics 100 (I still don’t get what does Physics have to do with Food and Nutritional Sciences???) from 8-9.30am every Tuesday and Thursday.
Biochemistry 300 has the least amount of work; all we had to do was to attend the 1-hour lecture on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and sit for the 2 exams in this term. It spans over 2 terms since it’s a 6-credit course, and it has no assignments, quizzes, reports, presentations or whatsoever. The prof is downright AWESOME!!! You can really see that he really loves his job as he’s so enthusiastic while getting information across, and he’s so hyper while explaining things! He makes the supposedly super boring class soooo interesting, and that has engaged us, making us wanna learn more.
BUT *deng deng deng*, there’s a twist. We only have 4 exams in the entire school year, each weighing 25%, and THEY. ARE. INSANELY. HARD. I was in borderline pass in my 1st exam (my fault), and I just did the 2nd one last Wednesday. Man, I studied really hard on that one, so hopefully it’ll boost up my mark. *keeping fingers crossed*
So there was Physics 100. It was OK; a lecture on every Tuesday and Thursday, a pre-lecture quiz due on every Monday, an online assignment due every Friday night, a lab and tutorial (total of 3 hours) on every Friday morning, a midterm and a final. Had to do this course since I don’t have Grade 12 Physics. The prof is fine. Tall, lanky guy with a thick German accent. Oh oh, and we had to do a poster session for our final project, high-school style. My group was awesome, very committed and we got things done on time.
Now as for LFS 250…… Where should I start? Oh… It’s a B.I.T.C.H. OK lah, maybe calling it a “bitch” is a bit too harsh; all the profs and TAs are nice, helpful and uber friendly. But still, I dislike that course.
Because of that course, I couldn’t take more than 3 courses in Term 1 as it clashed with those that I wanted to take. Because of that course, I had to commit most of my time in doing all the assigned works (group and individual) and it had left me unable to pay more attention to my Biochemistry. Because of that course, my social life was affected and that explicitly explains why I still don’t have a boyfriend till now. Wait, scratch that, that is a bit far-stretched hehe.
Every week we had an average of 3 or more assigned readings (each with at least 10 pages with fonts that are killing your eyes) to do. We had 3 group presentations on 3 of the assigned readings, a major presentation on a final project, 2 journals with 6 entries each (an assignment that tests on our understandings on the clips that we’ve watched in class, lectures and all of the readings), a midterm critical review on a book with 200++ pages, a dairy system report with a giant poster (collaborative, but tiring) and a major report with 20 over pages on our final project (again it’s collaborative, but it was a pain…). Almost everyday we had meetings for discussions, super time-consuming and demanding.
As I’ve always told my friends in my LFS 250 class, “LFS 250 really sucks the life outta me!!!“
The readings are certainly not my cup of tea; I was nearly bored to death while reading them, but I had no choice. My team mates for this course are awesome peeps, with just 1 or 2 that are not as “driven” like the majority of us. Frustrations aside, we did great in our work.
Haiya. It’s all over now, I should be happy and contented as I’ve survived my 1st half of my 2nd year! Woohoo!
* * *
Guess I shall leave you guys with one of my favourite pics from SNSD or Girls’ Generation:
Hyoyeon for LG Chocolate.
Woot~~~ She’s FIERCE!!!
Hyoyeon is my favourite SNSD member. She has caught my eye since SNSD debuted with “Into the New World” back in 2007. She was blond back then, and she showcased her powerful dancing skills in the MV for “Into the New World”, which immediately won my heart. At first I thought she was Eurasian or something because her facial features are so different from the other girls.
Sadly, the media tend to put more spotlight on other SNSD members like Taeyeon, Jessica and Yoona (geez, Yoona is soooo overrated!), while the netizens dubbed her as the “ugly duckling” of the group. Personally, I think she looks really pretty. I really hate the fact that she has on average less than 5 seconds of solo moment in all the SNSD MVs and live performances. So sad! She only has like 1 line in all of the songs. I think that’s quite unfair as she can really sing, perhaps not as skilled as Taeyeon or Jessica or Seohyun, but she has a lovely voice! Sigh, she’s so underrated. Go Hyo Go!!!
Fin.
P.S. I just remembered that I still haven’t made a post on my 2010 Winter Olympics experience, which is long overdue. *headtable*
Marulilu Café, Vancouver
Hmmm, seems like I nearly broke my promise, didn’t I?
I soon learned that the cafés here are actually the Western equivalence to the kopitiam in Malaysia the very first day I stepped onto the Vancouver pavement. Caffé Latte is the fancier counterpart of our humble kopi-C. Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea Latte is to my Lipton teh-C served in the 88 Food Centre that is located near the Police Camp in Miri. Espresso is the high-end version of kopi-O-gau, but without looking like a cup of black ink. And, Iced Caffé Mocha is like the much, much more cheaper……Neslo-beng (Neslo = Nescafe coffee + Milo, beng = iced)?
These cafés are abundant in the whole Vancouver. Italian cafés, home-grown Canadian cafés chains, French coffee shops etc. You can find maybe 20 of them or more in one street, and the good ol’ Starbucks are always around the corner in every 2 blocks when you need to fulfill your morning caffeine fix in order to survive through all those boring lectures.
So, you asked, “Marulilu……sounds so…Japanese…..No, no, how can there be a Japanese café in a city where Starbucks and Blenz are dominating the coffee culture???”
You, my friend, are right in the first part. It is a Japanese café. Operated by Japanese staff and sells katsu-don, okonomiyaki and Japanese style breakfast. And, Marulilu is not the only Japanese café in town.
The store front.
I first discovered this quaint little cafe when I was on the 99 B-Line bus that goes along West Broadway. The sign of the cafe is really hard to be missed as it stands out since the name is spelled out in 3D, and it has a white and clean background. Furthermore, it’s just opposite to the freakin’ Broadway-City Hall skytrain station.
I went there with a friend for brunch. My friend is a huge fan of Japanese cuisine and she’ll try anything that has a Japanese name associated with it haha!
It wasn’t crowded in the cafe. We were greeted warmly by the cashier in Japanese once we pushed open the door. I like the interior of the cafe; the main theme is dark coffee bean brown that goes really well with the beige coloured wall. The decor is not over the top, but it still gives a charming aura, simple but not boring. There are a few modern art pieces and a mirror (which I adore) hanging on the wall, accompanied by the dark willow decorative branches.
Just charming.
The counter is just in front of the main door. It was kind of messy as there were a lot of stuff in that tiny little space.
The menu board.
The menu board is behind the counter. All of the words are written nicely and neatly on the old school blackboard with coloured chalks. You just have to stare at the board to choose what you want without referring to any menu booklet. It’s really convenient. I think that this kind of menu board is a trend among the cafés here.
Looking out of the window.
After we had ordered, we sat at the table near the counter. The chair is super comfy! I like their floor to ceiling windows as the cafe can capture a maximum amount of sunlight that adds to brightness, which is great for photographing food.
The service was prompt. Our food arrived after 10 minutes.
Iced matcha latte.
My friend ordered a glass of iced matcha latte. Love the colour of the whole thing. I took a sip. It was really good! It tastes nothing like the sugar-laced iced green tea latte that is sold at Starbucks. That is pure yuck! Even if you told the Starbucks staff to make your green tea latte non-sweet, you still can taste the sweetness in your drink as, I suspect, that the green tea powder is pre-mixed with sugar. I just can’t stand how sugary most Starbucks drinks are. Simply terrible.
OK back to the iced matcha latte. It was just lovely. It wasn’t sweet at all (syrup was provided if you need it) and they used real matcha powder. If I’m not mistaken, they used 1% or maybe 2% milk because, as a frequent skim milk drinker, the milk in the latte was definitely not as “diluted” as skim milk, but not too creamy like the homogenized milk either. I believe that this is the authentic Japanese green tea latte which is the same as the one sold in Japan itself, or perhaps very close to the real thing.
My café jelly latte.
I was all “oohs” and “aahs” when my drink arrived. The jelly looks like grass jelly (凉粉), but lighter in colour and more transparent. It does remind me of the kind of dessert that me and my family always have during Chinese New Year (grass jelly eaten with evaporated milk and canned fruits plus a scoop of vanilla ice-cream yum!). I was a wee bit annoyed about there wasn’t a spoon for me to eat the jelly, so I just used my straw to suck the jelly up into my mouth. To my surprise, the coffee jelly isn’t as firm as I expected it to be; it was really soft and it broke down into smaller fragments in order to go through the straw. The jelly wasn’t sweet at all, and the coffee taste was not too strong. Again I think they were using 1% milk. The whole thing had no sweetness in it, you could add syrup according to your taste. Me likey!
And within 5 minutes, our food is served.
Japanese style breakfast.
My friend had the Japanese style breakfast (brunch, to be exact hehe) set. Everything except the miso soup had no salt in it. The cooked salmon was OK, and the Japanese omelette was quite bland. We were surprised that the tofu was actually quite warm and fresh as we were expecting the straight-out-of-the-fridge one. It was very soft and smooth. For me, the tofu was the only thing I like in that breakfast set. :0
Okonomiyaki (Kansai style).
Aaaahhhh……My food was here. It’s basically cross between seafood pancake and omelette. I was taken aback by the size of my okonomiyaki as I thought that it was too much for my little stomach. They were very generous in the the fillings; eggs, shrimps, squids, octopus, cabbage, green onions and cheese! Topped with Kewpie mayonnaise, katsuobushi (dried shaved bonito fish), aonori (seaweed flakes), okonomiyaki sauce and picked ginger (not sure why it is pink), the whole thing was heavenly. It was so so good! I couldn’t stop eating it until I nearly licked the plate clean hahaha! Thank goodness the waitress provided me extra okonomiyaki sauce as it wasn’t enough on the okonomiyaki itself.
I was quite full after I finished my okonomiyaki. But, there is always room for dessert!
Lemon cheesecake.
Mmmmm, cheesecake! It was served last after our main course. I was a bit disappointed by its size. It has a strong lemony taste, and I think that it was a tad too sweet for me. I could see grated lemon skin at the yellow-brown bottom, and the base was made of crushed graham biscuits. I could taste a little bit of shredded coconut at the cheesecake base. Not the best lemon cheesecake around, but it’s still above average. It could have been better if they reduced the sugar so that the sweetness is not overwhelming.
Overall, Marulilu Café makes the cut. Its location is really strategic as the Broadway-City Hall station is just right across.
Would I go back again? Yes, especially when I need my matcha latte fix and am craving for some delicious okonomiyaki.
Moved!
OMG! OMG! OMG!
I’m so excited right now because……I’ve moved into my new dorm!!!
It’s a quad in the South Tower of Walter H. Gage residence and I’m on the 14th floor!!! There are 6 rooms in a unit and 4 units on a floor. AND, there are 2 elevators *yayayayayay*!!!
My room door.
And it’s not even the main door of the unit! It is operated by a VingCard and you need to key in your first 4 digits of your student number to unlock it. The same goes the lock at my main door. How cool is that? The room doors in Totem Park the old-fashioned lock and key kind. I feel like I’m in a whole new level as compared to those First Years who are living in Totem Park or Vanier hahahahha!
First day of moving in.
I got a welcome package with brochures that include moving in FAQs and advice on how to live in harmony with your unit mates. I love the lanyard they have for this year; royal blue! So classy! On the lanyard there’s my VingCard, my U-Pass (a transit pass that rocks your socks off, UBC and SFU students are soooo pampered by this), my mailbox key, a couple of mini discount cards for food outlets and a bunch of keys to my aunt’s place just in case I wanna go back to stay overnight. (What’s a U-Pass you asked? Click here for more info).
Lucky number 3!
Yup, that’s my room number. My room is actually situated beside the kitchen area.
I’m in the midst of unpacking my stuff, so my room is a HUGE mess.
A mess hole.
My uh...bed?
EVERYTHING is EVERYWHERE. I swear, I’ve tried my best to bring as little stuff as I can, but at the end of the day I still need a lot of space keeping them.
Luckily, this place has tonnes of shelves and so much space. It’s A LOT (mark the bold and capitalized words) bigger than my little Totem cubicle. I felt pitiful for myself when I remember myself sleeping + studying + eating + doing pilate in that tiny little shithole for 8 months! So freakin’ kelian man!
The closet.
This closet is freakin’s huge! I can put 2 pieces of my luggage, a comforter, a few pairs of shoes and lots of clothing in it (WHICH gives me an excellent excuse to buy more clothes hehehe).
Side shelves.
In case you’re wondering, I do mat pilate. And yes, I still play badminton.
Study area.
YEEESSSSS!!! More shelves for my brick-heavy textbooks and there’s a study lamp! I love it when my study table is located beside the window as I can get the maximum amount of natural light when studying during the day.
A view of my whole (almost) room.
I stood on the edge of my bed while taking this photo. There’s an extra cabinet for my other stuff. And that cute mini fridge is the one I had from last year.
Another shot.
The size is not the only reason why I love my room so much.
BEHOLD……
Gorgeous.
This is what I can see from my room. It’s freakin’ gorgeous! My room is facing the mountains, which is the north, and the sea, which is the Strait of Georgia.
Pretty pretty blue sky!
If you’re feeling down from homesick or stressed out from schoolwork, just look out the window, and you’ll immediately feel exhilarated and pumped up as if you’ve found a whole new point of living in this ghastly world. Hmmm, maybe it would be a great room for people with depression or something…
The North Tower.
The only thing is this North tower is partially obstructing my awesome view, but since my window is big, I’m not complaining.
Looking downwards.
The huge-ass window.
And it gets better when dusk approaches…
Waaaaaa......
And another:
Zoomed in.
Simply breathtaking. Jealous leh?
So from now onwards, whenever I enjoy the sunset from my room I’ll definitely develop an ‘urge’ (don’t know how to say this in English, but what I wanna express is “雅兴” in Chinese) to recite a famous poem《登乐游原》, which is about sunset by a famous Chinese poet named Li Shang Yin (李商隐):
李商隐《登乐游原》
向晚意不适，
驱车登古原。
夕阳无限好，
只是近黄昏。
Generally, it means even though the sunset is breathtakingly beautiful, it’s still only temporary and this wonderful scenery ends in just a blink of an eye. The poem advises us to appreciate whatever good thing that we encounter as sooner or later it will come to an end before you know it. (Please forgive me if you think that I did a bad job in translating…I did my best…)
I was supposed to stay in the unit opposite to my current one before moving in. That room also has an awesome view. It’s facing south, so you can see the whole campus and the sea. There aren’t any taller buildings that block the view, so basically what you get are a flat surface with houses and shorter buildings all over and the sea at your right that is boundless (“一望无际” in Chinese). Don’t ask me why did I switch my room. Long story.
OK, I have to continue with my unpacking now. Later guys!
(If you’re interested in learning more about UBC student housings, just follow this link).
Note: I wrote this on Sunday, but I forgot to publish it because I was too engrossed in the amazing view and I couldn’t get over the fact that my room is just too awesome. I know, I’m rubbing it in your face……muahahaha!
Classy
This is obviously a filler post lol.
I love to collect any photoshoot that is creative, intriguing and ‘click’ (not sure how to describe it XD) to me just like that for the first time I see it. So anything that has a “shock value” visually will immediately be downloaded into my picture folder in my computer (you don’t wanna know how much space in my hardrive have the pictures taken up, you’ll definitely go agape).
‘Nuff said, let’s enjoy!
Yup, it’s T.O.P from Big Bang! This is the photoshoot for the 2009 August issue of ELLE Korea. Hot as always.
T.O.P looks like he’s part of an British rock band, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the wallpaper behind him that gives me the thought.
Totally love his side profile/ jawline in this picture. He looks a bit like TVXQ‘s U-Know Yunho in this one.
*Fangirl killed by this stare...*
Love his facial feature. The stare OMGGGG!!! Total killer.
Oh the signature eyebrows! I can get the Chuck Bass‘s bad boy vibe from this. Boy got swagger in this picture.
Last but not least:
"Look Ma, I can blow smoke rings with my mouth!" XD
He looks so expensive in this. A total Asian mafia leader of the modern age. Don T.O.P!
There are actually 9 pictures altogether in ELLE Korea, but 3 of them didn’t make the cut. My cut, to be exact.
Until next time!
Picture credits: As tagged.
Homo homo homo!!!
Warning: Really graphic images. Parental discretion is advised. Make sure that you’re old enough to view the post. If you are diagnosed with homophobia and looking at half-naked men mass dancing scares you, please leave this blog immediately before you get nightmares. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.
What’s with the freakin’ title???
It’s been more than a week since my last post now. I need time to pick up from where I left off and re-familiarize (is that even a word???) myself with how WordPress works. I just learned how to edit and resize my photos using Neo-imaging, and I didn’t know that it took so much work! Well, I want my post to be perfect, so you can’t blame me on being slow. ;P
Anyway, I guess you guys are smart enough to guess what’s today’s post is about. The warning gave it all out.
One of the coolest things about living in Vancouver (or near Vancouver in my case) is that you get to attend and be part of the fun parades/ fairs/ exhibitions etc that are being held in downtown, that is the heart of Vancouver. Downtown Vancouver will be flooded with people, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, where the party animal are out of their leash and you’ll see drunkards puking everywhere along Granville Street.
Homosexuality is definitely not a taboo to most of the fellow Vancouverites. In fact, Vancouver has one of the largest LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders) community in Canada. Every year a parade will be thrown in downtown to celebrate homosexuality and being proud of it, attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. This year, Vancouver is at its 32nd year hosting the Pride Parade (Read more about it here), and it’s the largest one yet.
The Pride Parade happened on 1st of August this year. On the same day, there was another festival that celebrates Japanese Canadian culture called the “Powell Street Festival” happening on Powell Street in downtown. I really wanted to go there and take a look, but I couldn’t be in two places at one time! Sigh, maybe next year.
I arrived at Robson Street 30 minutes before the parade started. The part of the street that was used as the parade route was closed and gated, so visitors and pedestrians are ‘squished’ to the sidewalk. The participants were doing their final prep work for the parade, and visitors were allowed to go inside the gated part to take pictures.
Work Safe BC. So much orange...
Work Safe BC's float.
Just beside the Work Safe BC spot, there was a team of men wearing only white shirts and boxers. I don’t know who or what company they were representing. Notice the stark contrast with the orange-y neighbours.
The men in...boxers???
I see abs! *faints*.
Yeah, major nosebleed. XD It would have been better if some of them could just get rid of the feather thingy on their heads. The lady, errr, man, no, I mean she-male, gah whatever, scared me with his/ her poses…
Another orange team: Level One.
The Pride flag.
When you see a giant disco ball hanging on the truck, you know that there’s some serious partying going on. The rainbow flag (also known as the Pride flag) is the LGBT symbol. The different colours represent the diversity of the LGBT community (here). This flag was everywhere; on shop displays, floats, shirts, stickers etc.
Rainbow for Armani Exchange!
Even Armani Exchange supports Pride. Cool!
"Oh darling, we know that we're hotter than those Thai trannies! *fans face*"
Drag queens with crazy hairstyles and frills all over. The one with pink hair seems like he/ she had botox and lip fillers, I don’t know. His/ her face looks so ‘taut’ and his lips just bother me.
I walked out of the gated region and looked at the participants through the gates while walking with the crowd.
Mass dancing.
Even before the parade started, music was blasting through the car stereos and the participants were already on their dancing shoes and gyrating away as if they were in a rave.
The oddies.
Guess what did they call themselves?
Lol!
When I first saw them, I only thought that they just picked up random costumes and got together to go as a team, and the thought of them impersonating the circus did not cross my mind, until I saw the banner on the float. I immediately burst out laughing, so were the others who saw them. For those who don’t get it, Canada has its very own entertainment company called “Cirque du Soleil” (Circus of the Sun) that produces sold out world-class circus performances, and the circus is touring Vancouver right now for the entire summer (Learn more about Cirque du Soleil here). So, Cirque de So Gay is a deadpan humour.
My Virgin Radio Pride pin.
At 12pm sharp, the parade started. I couldn’t get into the crowd that filled the space before the gate at the intersection of Robson Street and Thurlow Street. Being vertically challenged, I could only hear the sound of the music from each float that went by. All I saw were people’s heads in front of me. So I only managed to get a few shots whenever I could. How I wish I was dining at Red Robin at that time and watching the parade from the second floor. TT
The famous Canadian maple...no...WEED flag?!
Props to whoever came up with the design. Like maple leaves, marijuana (or commonly known as “weed” or “pot”) is really ubiquitous here. Marijuana abuse is rampant in Vancouver. Heck, even the student residential buildingsin UBC smell like weed. Ugghhh, the smell of it is damn awful, I don’t know how to describe it, but people said that it’s similar to skunk pee or something, really pungent like ammonia. Gosh why doesn’t the Canadian government do something to stop people from smoking pot???
Peacock man and tranny!
Honestly, they looked good! Hahaha! Maybe ever since Lady Gaga appeared on the surface of this earth, things like this don’t seem weird to me now lol!
I gave up the spot I was standing because I could hardly see a thing. So I crossed Thurlow and walked down Robson, hoping that I could get a better spot. The crowd in the picture looks like caged primates…Civilized ones that is…
Look at all those peeps!
More people.
I showed my dad this picture and he thought that the girl far right with the grey hoodie was me!!! :O I was like “Uuuuuhhhhh……no……” Hahahah!
I definitely got a better view from where I was standing now. There wasn’t any gates surrounding the parade route after the intersection between Robson and Thurlow, so the crowd could get nearer to the floats.
Woohoo! Party time!
Gay cowboy theme, perhaps?
"We're here! And we're queer!"
A team a tough men in tight white shirts and suspenders.
Pretty!!!
A shot from across.
Wavin' flags!
Team from CKNW AM 980 promoting Pink Shirt Day (here), with hope to stop all forms of bullying.
The firetruck red team: CBC News.
Yeah lemme see you work that thang!
Seriously, he had the cheesiest moves I’ve ever seen. Seems like he was enjoying himself huh?
Hey, it's them again!
"Oh yeah!"
The dark queen and her posse.
Maybe wearing nothing but black underwear and spray paint is a fashion statement…
Some of the participants (mostly girls) handed out freebies like candies, calendars, stickers, bottled juice to the crowd. Instead of waiting for the freebies to be handed out to them, people just mobbed the poor girls like hungry predators mauling the prey. And I thought that Vancouverites were supposed to be nice and friendly??? After all the freebies were snatched away, I could see that the girls were stunned and some of them were petrified at some point. I feel for them.
After all the floats had headed West towards Denman Street, the crowd dispersed.
Party's over.
Flooded...with people.
I headed to Davie Street, a few blocks away from Robson Street. Davie Street is the home to Vancouver’s gay subculture, and a “gaybourhood” (here).
The Pride banner!
This banner is on every lamppost along the West End of Davie Street.
Venetian princesses, with beards and chest hair. XD
Saw them when I was walking along Davie. I guess they were going for the Venetian Carnevale look with a little bit of gypsy edge to it. Interesting. Not sure what to say about the one with the belly dancing accessory though.
Buddha and gay pride???
阿弥陀佛。。。。。。善哉，善哉。
SM much???
Vintage police car.
One of the random things saw on Davie. Perhaps the owner is an oriental ‘sheriff’???
"Be Proud! We Are!"
Window display of a wine shop.
Celebrities - Davie's gay night club.
Celebrities is one of the hottest gay night club in Vancouver. It looks pretty normal during the day, but at night, it’s wild.
Pride flag in one of the restaurants.
And, a shop display in an optical shop:
Love the display.
Soooooo wrong!
Not your average Ken and Barbie, eh?
Lots of passers-by stopped and took a closer look at this display, including me. I guess little girls would be really devastated when they saw this.
Oooo, naughty naughty Ken!
The Kens even wore lipstick and had the infamous Madonna mole near their upper lips! XD
Last but not least:
Here comes the bride!
This is the best of them all. Mattel should totally start a Gay Ken line that targets collectors who are part of the LGBT. Who knows? It might be the company’s bestseller.
I walked downhill along Davie, heading West where the parade route ended. There was a party at Sunset Beach, and there were a lot of people. Several Nintendo DS bikes could be found beside the road; the public could play with the DS consoles that were attached to the bikes.
Mobile DS.
Local newspapers with a CBC fan.
Overall, the Pride Parade was a fun event suitable for people of all shapes and sizes, and it was children-friendly too! You’ll never see this kind of event happening in Asia where most of the Asian countries are quite conservative *cough especially Malaysia cough*. It was an eye-opener indeed, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next Pride Festival happening in 2011.
* * *
Omigah! It took me a long time to generate a post like this. Imagine how long will I take to write about the 2010 Winter Olympics??? *gasp*
I adore my readers, so I guess I’ll have to suck it up and create the post for you guys. I highly doubt that it will be as ‘short’ as this one.
So, off I go! Muaaakkksss!
7 Months and 28 Days Later…
Good. Heavens.
Where the eff have you beeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnn???????
My sincerest apology. My longer than ever absence from my blog was unannounced. And I think people are forgetting my blog’s existence lol.
You might be asking,”Why now? Of all the times we were expecting you to update your 411, you didn’t appear. We thought that the blog is dead and pushing up the daisies?!” Well, I did once consider to shut this blog down forever. But something inside me told me that since I’ve created this blog, I should keep it going, don’t stop whatever I’ve started halfway, or it will be a huge regret later. I sound like an old man here…
I’m not sure about what has kept me from logging into my WordPress account. Maybe it was because I was so caught up with school and other stuff that totally distracted me from blogging. Or, maybe I was just being lazy and uninspired to churn out any spazz-worthy posts. YOU decide.
Anyway, I’m back now, for the second time and hopefully for good XD. I vaguely remember that I promised to update you guys about my HK trip for last year. You’ll be majorly disappointed now because I decided not to blog about it, even though I started the draft like, 7 months ago. Sigh. The reason behind it is that the trip happened AGES ago, and I don’t think I can recall most of the details. *Bad memory when one gets old…* So, yeah.
Hmmm, I’ve been away for too long now, so I think I might as well start off with posts about some interesting events that I’ve attended (notably, the 2010 Winter Olympics, took shitloads of pictures in just a week), fun places that I’ve visited, B.C. restaurants reviews (food porn hahaha!), snack reviews, good music (oh I can totally see myself ranting and raving on the autotune-loaded music nowadays lol!) and tids and bits of my life. Oh and also some artsy fartsy stuff or pictures that I found online (thank goodness for Tim Berners-Lee, the one who invested the internet).
Ok, I’m gonna sign off and work on my upcoming posts now. I know that I’ve broken my promise once, hopefully I can keep my promise this time and spoil you guys with goodies, but I can’t share them with you muahahahhah! So please look forward to what I will offer! Before I go, take a look at this:
Crazy hairstyle. Credit: Whoever owns or produced the pic.
This is one epic hairstyle. Found this the web a while ago and it just got me just like that *finger snap*. See how the afro hairdo resembles the dark cloud looming in, while the straightened part of the hair resembles the heavy shower? A big props to the hair stylist. And also the photographer who captured it so beautifully. I dare say it’s the BEST hairstyle that I’ve ever seen!
Fin.
P.S. I can totally imagine CCS, Longwin, Ruth, Oli, Johnny and probably NS’s shocked faces when they see this out-of the-blue update. Hehe.
