Transit Travels: An Artistic Day 8

Day 8
August 13 – Robson Square (and other areas of Downtown Vancouver)

I had companion for this trip. What.

My friend… Panda came along with me.

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We got to Burrard Station around 11:30. The Artisans’ Fair did not start until noon. We passed by Christ Church Cathedral and we were going to go in there to look before the fair in Robson Square started, but it wasn’t open to the public because of MusicFest. Well, next time.

We wondered around for a while and found Picnurbia.

Right beside it, as we arrived, so did a group of (mostly) university students and a few families set up for a rally/protest.

Panda said they were chanting “Free the Children!”

Well, we were standing there and a guy approached us asking if we were interested in what they were there for.

He explained that in Chile right now, students have taken to the streets to protest their education system where the only way to get a proper education was to have money. He said they were there to show support for the students in Chile. He something along the line of, “If you couldn’t pay for education, you’re pretty much screwed.”

I did a bit of digging myself for background, but not really enough to grasp the situation. I understand that one of the things the Chilean students want criminalized is profiting from education also that most of the institution offering higher education was private and that 45% of high school students study in public schools.

According to a BBC article (link), the education system is unfair and allows the rich access to the best education while the poor are put in underfunded and shabby state schools.

According to this article (link), 70% of university students in Chile attend private institutions.

The guy from Robson Square said that they couldn’t be a proper democracy unless they had a fair education system.

He asked us to take a picture with a paper that says, “I support Chilean students” I was slightly reluctant to do it because I’m not very familiar with the situation other than what he told me. Panda wanted to remain anonymous. She came up with a solution.

We would take a picture of him with the poster and I would write about it here.

I don’t know nearly enough about the situation to put my face on it and myself behind it. It does sound like something worth fighting for however.

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Panda and I wondered all the way around Robson Square waiting for the Market to set up. We came upon these hula hoops on Granville St. which was closed off as part of Viva Vancouver.

We made our way back around to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

And of course, the fountain in front of the VAG. (Yes, I know what I just said.)

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I hadn’t eaten anything that day and well… all those food carts around. Panda and I went on a food tour of two carts. The first was one that we passed by: Re-up (Addicting) BBQ.

Pulled Pork Sandwich – $7

The man was nice enough to cut it in half for me and Panda.

You know my recent obsession with good costumer service right? We got it here. For that reason alone, I want to revisit. The actual cart was really cute as well.

We went over to Picnurbia to enjoy our sandwiches.

It was delicious.

My biggest problem with it is the size. For $7, it was tiny. It was sized like a sandwich you could get at a fast food restaurant for $3. I understand that it isn’t a fast food restaurant and clearly it is of much higher quality, but I wouldn’t pay regularly for a sandwich that’s $7. I couldn’t afford to pay regularly for one.

It is definitely worth a try, even if it’s too expensive for me to become a regular.

One food cart I have been hearing a lot about is Japadogs. Which is where we decided to head next because we couldn’t find the Japadog that was closer to Robson, so we headed to Waterfront Station, where I knew there was a cart because I had passed by it on my way to Canada Place.

In front of Burrard Station, where we headed to take the skytrain to Waterfront Station, there was a stand selling Fuze drink for a minimum donation of 5 cents. Which is beyond cheaper than what you would pay in stores and the money was going to a good cause. I can’t remember for the life of me what cause it was.

Panda and I had walked past it our first time our of Burrard Station actually and she was pretty excited to go back and get one.

We both paid 25 cents.

We went to Waterfront Station for our Japadogs.

We ordered a Spicy Cheese Terimayo – $6.75. It was the most popular hotdog in 2010, according to the sign.

In terms of customer service, it was great here too. The two of them were adorable and very friendly. A small thing that I thought made a difference was the fact that she looked me in the eye, smiled and told me, “Have a nice day.” They had plenty of customers, but she still made it seem like I was important. She made eye contact, it was more personal. Simple things like that often make experiences better for customers, the difference between normal service and good service.

We sat on the window of the Fresh Slice right by the hot dog stand and ate. I was not entirely sure if it counted as loitering, or if you could be arrested for loitering in Vancouver.

Pricing – same as the Re-Up sandwich. It’s worth the try, but for what it is, not worth buying on the regular.

This one is a bit more worth your money simply because of the fact that it is hot dogs with Japanese toppings. Even though it is a bit expensive, I am tempted to try all of them because they are so interesting.

Considering the pricing on regular hot dog stands around Vancouver is only slightly less ($5 at one cart), I would go for Japadogs because it’s unique.

It was pretty good too. The sauce and seaweed made up the hot dog. I took a bite of one part the sauce didn’t quite get on and it tasted extremely ordinary. Otherwise, it was delicious. In fact, I actually wanted a bit more after I finished my half. So I will definitely come back if I have the chance. If I have the money, I would probably try one of each.

We took the Canada Line back to Robson Square because I have a newfound fondness for the train after I saw a really hot – rich looking – guy on there on my way back from Steveston. Yes, I’m shallow. Have I ever mentioned my goal in life was to be rich?

Like I told Panda, I spend like a rich person, but I don’t have the money to back it up. I need to become rich or else I’ll end up extremely broke.

Right in front of the Vancouver City Centre skytrain station was the other food cart I really wanted to try, but we didn’t see earlier – La Brasserie Street. We were really full at this point though, so I had to file it away for another trip. Their rottiserie chicken sandwich looks delicious.

The first thing we saw when we walked back to Robson Square was this lady singing.

She has a very sweet sounding and pleasant voice. I didn’t get her name but from a brief Google search, I believe she is Katie Rox. Don’t quote me on it though. It sounded like her from the few clips on her website, however. (I just tweeted Katie Rox to ask, I’ll edit this later if she responds.)

We walked around to the few stalls (I’m just going to call them stalls, they were more like tents) displaying work and jewellry for sale.

Panda started chatting with the woman about the crystals.

I was very impressed by the woman. She was extremely knowledgeable and seemed truly passionate for what she did, not to mention her jewellry were beautifully designed and made.

All of the memorable experiences have been the ones with friendly vendors that greeted you and chatted with you about their work.

The next one like this was a man called Kyle (website), who is a photographer. He had a great photo of a horse right up close, it was the first thing that caught my eye on his table. Panda and I chatted with him a while about his work, and the horse photo. He asked me what kind of photography I did, noticing the camera around my neck. I told him mostly travel in recent days.He mentioned how beautiful Vancouver was and how easily overlooked it was until you started photographing it.

I agreed, of course. This project – Transit Travels – especially has made me really appreciate the beautiful place I live.

We walked around the Market again and found a lady that made names/words out of wires. It looked really cool and in recent days, I have really accepted my name and now I think I have the greatest name of anyone out there. Offense intended. You can’t use your name to made “Heiding Away”, can you? Just kidding. But I seriously do love my name.

Panda was also really curious to see how she made the names.

Of course, there has to be a picture of me in here somewhere, yeah?

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We went into Chapters after and looked at books.

It was after we left Chapters that I had a crisis. I lost the “Heidi” that I just paid $5 for. We walked back to the lovely lady that made it for me and to the stall next to her’s where we stopped after I got the “Heidi”. We went back to Chapters.

Panda had a brainwave. We were at the computers, looking up a book – I must have put it down while I was typing.

Sure enough, I found it beside one of the computers.

Crisis averted then.

Wasn’t much of a crisis, was it? It was more like further proof of my scatter-brain.

Well, now my newly made picture holder is safely and proudly holding the photo of me and Murr that was taken during the 2011 Playoff when we went to Roger’s Arena before game 5 against the Nashville Predators in the second round.

Panda and I went to Metropolis at Metrotown after our day at Robson Square. We bought candy. That’s always exciting. I also used the self checkout at Superstore for the first time.

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Day 9 of Transit Travels involved danger. Not really. I’m going to Capilano Suspension Bridge with my mum and my brother tomorrow. Watch for the Day 9 wrap up. 🙂

Summer 2 0 1 1: Part I

The summer began with me volunteering immediately for summer camp. That was a terrible week for me. I was tired every single day and I just wasn’t there. I felt terrible that week, physically terrible. It was also very lonely; mostly because I didn’t know how to speak with people who are slightly older than me. I can’t address them as my peers, yet they are not old enough for me to speak with them as my superiors. Well, I could have spoken to them as my superiors, which I suppose they were since they were in charge of the camp while I was there to help out. It would have just felt weird to speak to them like that when they looked, again, not much older than me.

The following week, I had plans for 3 consecutive afternoons, so I decided to volunteer for the younger age group summer camp which was only half of the day. I was feeling slightly better that week, but my movements and my reactions were still slow while I was volunteering. On the Monday, I went to the park with a bunch of friends.

It was an adventure just getting there. We got lost. None of us was willing to accept responsibility for that happening. We had a water fight, sort of. Then we sat on fake horses (pictured).

Then we were on a monkey bar type thing. Desperate decided he would say one swear word while a little boy was nearby. I called him out for it. Desperate apologized. The little boy’s mother overheard me tell Desperate off and decided – despite us having the only slip up with swearing and despite me already having spoke with him about it – that she would help.

She proceeded to tell us off. We listened, then went back to talking without anymore slip ups – regardless of her.

Cannibal had to go home because he had something unimportant todo – like math tutoring and eating dinner. Brown decided she would walk with him to the bus stop because she planned on telling Cannibal she liked him. This plan prevented me from going home at the same time as Cannibal even though we live in the same direction. I stayed longer and had fun, but whatever.

On Tuesday, I woke up very excited. I had made plans with Murr to go downtown. I left volunteering at 12:30 after eating lunch there first. I took the160 that took me straight downtown. I arrived at Burrard Station at 2:25. The event Murr and I had planned on attending was suppose to begin at 5:30, however; as we suspected, there was a huge line for it already. The reason: the event was a Alex Burrows Meet and Greet.

Four hours of waiting in line, and one meeting with three recent graduates from my school due to the fact that they were eavesdropping on our conversation from their position behind us in the immobile line later, this happened:

We had a lovely thirty second conversation.

Burrows: Hi, how are you? – He holds out his hand for me to shake, which I took. Obviously.
Me: Good, you?
Burrows: I’m doing pretty good.
Me: That’s good. – I hand him my jersey to sign.
As he’s signing it, Me: Can you make it out to Heidi?
Burrows: Sure.
Me: H-E-I-D-I. – I repeated this twice as he signs.

We posed for a photo (pictured) and I left. It may have been the greatest thirty second conversation of my life. No big deal.

The next day, I went back to volunteering and I bragged to everyone while wondering every two seconds whether or not HP had uploaded the photo of me and Alex Burrows to the internet yet.

That afternoon, July 13, I had a group interview scheduled for 4 pm for the fair at the PNE (more on this later).

The rest of the week was pretty standard. What stood out was my argument (well, his argument, he was the one arguing while I listened, amused, and occasionally fanning the fire) with a kid from the older camp that happened upstairs for the 7-11 year olds.

He brought a book along the lines of “Greatest hockey players of all time”. He flipped to the page on Crosby. Knowing it was spark a response, I casually mentioned that I preferred Ovechkin to Crosby. His response was better than I could have predicted. I had to sit there for the next fifteen minutes while he completely chewed me out in a hilarious and adorable ten-year-old who really knows his hockey way.

For the record, I do prefer Ovechkin over Crosby, but only for his personality. Crosby’s a great player, but Ovechkin’s flashy. Yes, that’s all it takes to win me over. Sue me for being shallow. I just like Russians. Sid’s just too much of a “good Canadian kid” that I’m really not interested in him. He’s still the Olympic national hero, blah, blah, blah. I won’t take that from him, but Ovi’s a rockstar.

The kid screams “CROSBY HATER!” at me every time I saw him after that.

I never said I hated Crosby, I just don’t like him. I’m neutral about him.

I was free the whole day on Thursday and Friday, so I ended up volunteering all day. On the Friday, I went back to the camp for the 5-7 year olds because they needed more volunteers to take all of the kids swimming. So I did that.

*All names were altered just in case the people didn’t want themselves to be known. Dunno, can’t be bothered to ask.