vancouver

i'ma try to write more often. there's just so much catching up to do... i'll have to just write about the last couple of weeks, for now.

classes finished on december 3, and i had three finals scheduled plus one 10-page take-home final essay to do. the essay really stressed me out, but i finished it early so i could focus on studying. i wrote my native economic development final at 9:00 on thursday, december 11th, and then wrote my management of aboriginal natural resources final at 2:00 that same day. later that night i went to this girl alisha's house. i didn't really know her, but she used to be in native studies, and two of the girls i know from the faculty invited me to come, so i did, albeit reluctantly. i'm so glad i did! it was just the four of us there, and we just had a nice quiet night of talking about native studies stuff. it was really, really, really nice, especially because i don't often hang out with other NS majors. and those girls are all so bright and funny and aware and caring. i hope that i get to hang out with them more often this year, especially before one of them moves to yellowknife for a job with the government.

i spent most of that weekend inside because it was so freezing outside. also, i like crafting by myself.

on tuesday i wrote my cree midterm (it's a full-year course) at 9:00 a.m., and then came home and packed. i took the sky shuttle to the airport at 3:45, and then got on my plane to vancouver at 5:15. my friend caitlan, who i met this summer at the french immersion program, met me at the airport and we took the busses and skytrain back to her parents' house in burnaby. i was pretty tired, so we didn't do too much that evening except for talk. i also started teaching her how to crochet.

the next day, it started snowing like crazy. we went to the art gallery in burnaby, and in the evening we rented and watched "the diving bell and the butterfly." the next day, we took the train/bus to stanley park so i could see the totem poles there (although i don't feel very comfortable about them being there...), and then went back to burnaby to watch "milk" (which is incredible, and i highly recommend seeing!) at the theatre, and then went back to downtown vancouver to check out the art gallery. we also stopped at uncle fatih's pizza twice, and had the most incredible, cheapest pizza of all time (ie. two slices of spicy chicken pizza and a water bottle for $4). on our way out of the pizza place the second time, i ran into "math dave," who is the ONLY other person i really know who lives in vancouver. weird.

on friday the 19th, caitlan and i woke up at 5:30 (well, i woke up at 4:30 and couldn't fall back asleep because i was so excited) so that we could bus/train to the horseshoe bay ferry terminal to catch the 8:30 ferry to nanaimo. we also met up with three of caitlan's friends along the way. all of her friends were really bright and funny, and i was glad to spend time with them. within 15 minutes of nanaimo, huge, puffy snow started falling. ugh. so when we got to nanaimo, we decided to bus rather than walk to national car rental, where i had reserved a rental car for us. i impressed myself with my driving skills as i drove us up along highway 19, first to coombs (where we stopped at the old country market and the world parrot refuge. i had been to the market a few years ago when i went to visit my aunt and uncle in campbell river, but it was cute so i was glad to be back. i also enjoyed TWO pretty great butter chicken wraps, albeit somewhat self-consciously because of my all-vegetarian company. i had really been looking forward to the parrot refuge, but it turned out to be really really strange. first of all, because of all the snow, there was about 2 feet of snow surrounding the building, and only a little trail of one set of footprints that even showed where the entrance was. so first we walked into this one small building, which had about 70 birds squawking incredibly loudly, so we left that building in a hurry. we went into the larger building, and we could not see any humans anywhere, even though the building was open and the gift shop was unattended and hundreds of birds were flying around in their large cages. we didn't have time to take the self-guided tour of the refuge, and even if we had, none of us really felt like paying the $12-per-person entrance fee, so we left. we then drove to the incredible cathedral grove. i've been there once in the summer before, but never in winter, and neither caitlan nor her friends had ever been. it is really something else, and if you've never been, you should try to go at least once. i think it feels like one of the most sacred places i have ever been. it's an old-growth forest, and some of its trees are 800 years old! after walking around the grove, we headed back to nanaimo. we knew we had missed the 5:00 ferry, so we took our time returning the rental car and walking back down to the ferry terminal for the 7:00 ferry. we got home at around 10:30, feeling exhausted but happy.

caitlan worked the next day (at cobs bread), and i was so tired that i just stayed at her place and watched most of season 1 and 2 of "the office" while knitting sweaters for parrots. it's a good way to use up little bits of yarn, okay? when caitlan came back from work, she and her boyfriend and i watched some pink panther movie her boyfriend had rented. it was a little weird.

on my "last" day in vancouver, i packed up all my things and caitlan and i left her house at about 11:00. we trained/bussed to stanley park to see the aquarium. it was great! unfortunately, we had to go at 5, both because the place was closing and i had to get to the airport to catch my 8:50 flight. caitlan bussed with me to the airport and then we said goodbye and she headed home. i checked in for my flight, and saw that it had been delayed 4 hours. while i waited in the airport, the snow started falling harder and harder. the airport started shutting down runways and cancelling flights, and finally, at about 10:30, my flight was cancelled too. by that time, several flights had already been cancelled and there were more than 1000 angry, tired people who were waiting for the airlines to find hotels and new flights for them. i just called a hostel downtown and found out they had tons of room, so i took a couple of busses there and ended up staying for two nights. it was actually pretty enjoyable. my favourite part of travelling is the inconveniences that sometimes come up. i like problem solving, i guess. plus it gave me time to do some of the things i couldn't do earlier: visit the granville island market, walk around downtown, eat at a really incredible indian restaurant, and be by myself. i LOVE travelling by myself (although i also loved visiting with caitlan). i ended up getting a flight back to edmonton on the 23rd, two days after my original flight. i was lucky, too, because i think that people who got flights later than that ended up getting those cancelled as well on account of the weather. while i was waiting for my flight, the airport's fire alarm started going off very loudly, and didn't stop for about 25 minutes. i think i would count vancouver airport as my least favourite airport experience. i did get home safe and sound, though, and i drove to my parents' place the next day.

that is enough for one post, yeah? more later.