Update Post

You might have noticed the Transit Travels ended and I’ve been doing Theory of Knowledge journals instead. You might not have noticed.

There is the possibility of a Transit Travels on Sunday as I’m planning on going downtown with a friend.

There’s going to be 2 TOK journals a week if I don’t get behind.

Just to clarify, my Theory of Knowledge journal is something I have to do for my Theory of Knowledge class. Like the name suggests, it’s a class where we learn about knowing. I have to write a journal where I explore a topic that is related/that can be related to knowledge.

Transit Travels will be occasional, one or two weekends a month at the most. I wouldn’t bet on it.

November is National Novel Writing Month. I might be blogging about that. That might just fit under Creative, Service, Action reflection.

That’s another requirement of IB.

I have to reflect on activities I do, one hour of each a week: creative (ie. writing, drawing), service (ie. volunteering for children’s programs, peer tutoring), action (ie. basketball, Terry Fox Run).

Yep. Like the title said, just a brief update.

Transit Travels: A Suspending Day 9

 

Day 9
August 15 – Capilano Suspension Bridge

Howdy. I’ve been procrastinating.

On Monday, I went to Capilano Suspension bridge with my mum and my brother. We stopped by the Lonsdale Quay Market first before we headed off.

We had lunch here before we went to the suspension bridge. I wanted to go to the burger place I went on Day 1 of Transit Travels.

The first time I came here, it was the boss lady that took my order. This time she was cooking in the back while a young woman was taking orders. Ordering didn’t go easily this time, she spoke in a really soft and heavily accented voice. I usually don’t have a problem with accents, but she talked so quietly I could not hear her at all. I had to asked her to repeat herself three times.

I got a Hawaiian Chicken Burger – $8.90, my brother got a Chicken Burger – $7.90, my mum got a Salmon Burger – $8.95.

Our total was around $36.

If you did the math quickly, that wasn’t right.  But we didn’t notice until after we paid. My mum was looking at the receipt trying to figure it out.

I didn’t exactly have confidence in the girl who took the order, even before we thought they overcharged us, so I brought it to the boss lady who came to front to help make the burgers.

“Um, excuse me,” I said to her, “We were just looking at the receipt and even if all of the burgers cost $9, our total would still only be $27.” This was what my mum had said to me.

The boss lady was very flippant at first, she looked at her copy with what seemed to be the intention to prove us wrong. She frowned.

“Oh, yes, she typed in the wrong order for one of these.”

The boss lady started to explain what the younger woman did wrong.

“It doesn’t matter, just refund us,” my mum interrupted her with her passive aggressive do what I tell you laugh. (I know she’s reading this so.)

She refunded us $7.25. Geez, a $7 difference, really?

This experience was comparatively bad to my first experience with this place. I would still come back, but now I’ll be much more vigilant about how much I’m paying.

From left to right: Salmon, Hawaiian Chicken, Chicken.

They all come with fries but a drink is extra, so my mum just went to the McDonald’s by the seabus and got two larger dollar drinks, which is a lot cheaper than getting a drink from Dex.

I stole a bite of both my mum and James’. For the sake of research so I can write about it… of course.

James’ – the Chicken – was much too ordinary to have cost $7. Bun, chicken, mayo, lettuce. You can get that at McDonald’s for half the price. It was, of course, a lot tastier than McDonalds, but I considering it was a gourmet burger place…. The verdict on the Chicken Burger: Waste of money.

My mum’s – the Salmon – was pretty good. Grilled salmon, lettuce, tomato, tartar sauce. Verdict: worth a try. It tasted exactly like the burger I got from Pajo’s in Steveston though.

My Hawaiian Chicken Burger was still the best in my opinion – even being the second time I’ve tasted it. Grilled chicken, lettuce tomato, pineapple, teriyaki sauce. It was delicious. This kind of specialty burger, something you can’t get somewhere else is the only thing I think is worth getting.

Like everything else I’ve been having, they are all too expensive to eat on the regular, but if you ever get to Lonsdale Quay, you should definitely give it a try. Especially the Hawaiian Chicken Burger. Be sure to give your orders clearly (I was asked to repeat myself a bunch of times as well) and double check your receipt though.

We caught the 236 bus that would take us to Capilano Suspenion bridge after this.

Right inside the gate was this:

There was a big group of people standing on the pathway blocking everyone access to these people. I really wanted a picture of them, so the only obvious solution: I walked up and joined their group, not saying a word. They all looked uncomfortable and then all walked away.

That’s how you disperse a crowd.

The first thing we did was go on their new attraction the Cliffwalk.

It took about 20 minutes to get through it. It would have been way quicker if the group in front of us didn’t stop in the middle and block up the whole pathways every couple of minutes to take photos.

We sat down and relaxed for a while in front of the Old Fashion Ice Cream stand after.

My brother wanted to do the Cliffwalk again and while he was gone, my mum and I bought two scoops of the old fashion ice cream – $4.78 (after tax and the 10% discount you get with the membership card, which is complementary for BC residents after you pay for regular admission).

The bottom scoop is mocha and the top is white chocolate raspberry. Definitely try the white chocolate raspberry, it was delicious, as well as being a flavour you don’t commonly get in store.

My brother came back and said, “HEY!” because my mum vehemently rejected the idea of buying ice cream before.

The bottom scoop is Rocky Road (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and almonds) and the top is Creamsicle Swirl.

I shared an ice cream with my mum (read: she ate most of mine) while James attacked his by himself.

Yes, very attractive.

We finally went on the bridge after being lazy for a while under the tent in front of the Old Fashion Ice Cream stand.

Excuse the huge lens flare. The sun and the rocking bridge were determined not to let me get a good shot.

In fact I didn’t get very many good shots. Capilano Suspension Bridge as well as (Day 10’s) Burnaby Village Museum were off days for me.

I forgot this photo earlier. It’s a photo of the dashing band that I caught before they went on their breaks.

Here’s my mum as we rode the seabus back to Downtown Vancouver.

Wait… this was actually on the way to Lonsdale Quay. Oh well. It looked pretty much the same going there and back.

Here’s the sunset on the way back though.

–

My thoughts and condolences to the Rypien family. 27 is much too young for anyone to die, he should have had a lifetime in front of him. Rest in peace, Rick Rypien. You will be greatly missed. The NHL, the Canucks organization, the Jets organization, the world has lost a great player, a great fighter, a great person. 

 

 

 

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.

–

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.

–

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.)

–

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?

–

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.

–

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. 🙂

Transit Travels: A Fishy Day 7

 Aloha. I’m getting a haircut in 2 hours. Better write this quickly. Usually I take four hours to write a blog post because I keep stopping to do something else in between.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Day 7
August 11 – Steveston Village

I originally planned on leaving my house at 10 in the morning as it takes 2 and a half hours to reach Steveston Village by public transit from my house. But of course, I was up until 2 in the morning researching the village and planning my day. I set my clock for 8:30 so I could get up shower and get ready without having to rush for the bus. I turned off the clock when it went off and I slept 2 extra hours.

Steveston is a historic fishing village at the tip of Lulu Island (makes up most of the city of Richmond, BC).

They have the largest fleet in Canada with over 600 boats.

This was the entrance to a bunch of harbour tour boats and whale watching. There were plenty of fishermen selling fish, etc. from their boats below as well.

He said something about catching them at Port Hardy. I was creeping around at the time wondering if I could take a picture of him and the fish so I didn’t hear exactly what he said. Then some woman came by and took a picture openly so I felt silly and just took the photo.

This is the deck (I’m just going to call it a deck, I call everything that.) photographed from in front of the guy selling fish.

I walked on their trail for a bit, before realizing I was going the wrong direction. (I had been planning on going to Garry Point Park, which I didn’t end up going to.)

I saw a bunch of interesting… contraptions along the trail though. I didn’t bother realizing the signs on them, so I couldn’t tell you want they were.

At this point I turned around and walked back to where I started off my day. There was a restaurant called Sockeye City Grill (it’s the restaurant in the “deck” picture) that I hovered around in indecision. I still hadn’t had anything except for coffee and it was about 2 in the afternoon. It was time to eat.

It was a fish themed day after all, so clearly the lunch had to be local and fish related. According to the internet, fish and chips were a thing of fashion there so that was what I was looking for.

After about 15 minutes of hovering around Sockeye City Grill and making them feel uncomfortable, I decided against buying lunch there. The prices was just a bit higher than places that specialized in fish and ship – it was an actual restaurant, after all.

So I went to the place I did look up the menu for, Pajo’s – Famous for fish and chip. (Free advertisements, ahoy! Hey I used a nautical term! Not really.)

I got a grilled salmon burger and chips – $10.59, before HST.

The grilled salmon burger was delicious. There was a chose between grilled and deep fried, after I tried the chips, I was really happy I had chosen grilled fish for my burger. The chips were so full of grease I got a pimple on my nose within the hour. It wasn’t that bad, but the oily-ness of it made me feel a bit sick of it after about half. And it was a huge thing of fries.

I’m glad I decided to eat the fish burger first because after I’d eaten the chips, I felt like even though I hadn’t eaten anything else that day, I would be full until lunch the next day.

If you’re looking for fish and chips, I suggest you buy a “one of each” (one piece of cod, one piece of salmon, and one piece of halibut) and sharing it with someone. The portion’s a pretty decent size, if you can really eat, it’s a pretty filling meal. The greasy fries will fill you right up. I didn’t have the fried fish, but from the review they’re getting online, they’re at the same level of greasiness.

I will consider going there again because it’s not something I get to eat often. I seriously don’t suggest eating there often if you like your heart healthy.

I went to Steveston alone. Like I’ve been going everywhere else alone. People always look at me funny when I sit down alone somewhere. I kind of like being alone though, I can do whatever I want to be without being considerate of the other person’s opinion. As much as I like people, and I do. These time by myself have been very enjoyable.

That said, for tomorrow’s trip I’m going to Robson Square with a friend. As enjoyable as it has been going to all these beautiful tourist places alone, I’m looking forward to having a companion as I go to the premier shopping district in Vancouver.

The downside of being alone so much is highlighted here in this photo. I can’t take a picture of myself on one of these cardboard stick-your-head on it figures, so I had to photoshop myelf in there afterwards.

This was taken inside my final destination in Steveston Village: the Gulf of Georgia Cannery.

As I mentioned before, I bought my keychain here.

This place was built in 1894 and it was the largest Cannery (anywhere?). It was BC’s leading producer of canned salmon.

Admission was pretty cheap, I still fit under the youth admission (6-16) until next April so it cost me $3.90 (HST included) to get in. Adult admission is double that at $7.80.

There really isn’t much to talk about the museum visit. I walked around looking at everything. Everything in there was once used to can fish.

Before I went into the museum, I punched in.

I saw some cans inside the cannery.

There was also (fake) slaughtered fish.

It looks really gros, even if it’s fake. This was a fake ship display that you could go in. I walked through the tiny, cramped hallway. There is the sound effects of a storm, then calm water and the images on the windows corresponded with the sound effects (or vice versa). I walking along in the tiny and cramped hallway, I see the captain’s bedroom on my left hand side and I turned to my right hand side. And I see…

…him. This (fake) man scared the living daylights out of me. I thought he was real for a second. I stood there looking at him because even though I knew it was fake, my brain didn’t seem to believe me. My brain decided to imagine him moving his hand and his head slowly turning.

I love having an overactive imagination. Really. -.-

I got out of there real quick.

That basically took me to the end of the museum, I have been in there for a bit over 45 minutes. I went browsing in the gift shop and I found – with the help of the lovely woman that worked there – the keychain at the beginning of this post.

The girl at the cash register asked me how I enjoyed my visit.

“It was really great, but that fake guy on the ship – the one sitting on the toilet. He’s just a bit too realistic. He scared me.”

“Oh I know, he scares me every single time. And I work here,” she laughed.

It was around 4:45 and I was tired out. It took me a real long time to figure out where the bus stops were. The whole really small town that was actually part of the City of Richmond and not a small town anymore, technically, thing really hit me at this moment. Well eventually I found it.

The bus was 4 minutes late, which isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. The part that made me annoyed about this was that the bus driver was standing right next to the bus chatting with his buddy.

I understand the bus being late because of traffic, but being late because you wanted to finish a conversation is unacceptable .

The only other thing of note that happened was on the skytrain home. A drunk-smelling man with open sores and scabs all over his arms and face got onto the skytrain. Right before his stop, he stood up and retched. It wasn’t a huge amount of vomit though, it was small enough of a puddle that it could be mistaken for spilt water. Well, another guy walked by and stepped in it.

Oh yeah, there was also a woman that was tiptoeing on the line of manhandling her child. From my experiences volunteering with children, this was definitely not how you talk to a child. She wasn’t listening and so the woman reached out and hit her on the arm. I have nothing against people who spanked their kids, as long as it’s not done out of anger, but as a form of discipline. The child needs to know why they were being punished, not just suddenly hit.

I would never hit my own kid, but I understand why some parents think it’s an appropriate form of punishment – as long as it didn’t cross the line into abuse.  This woman doing it was that she did it in the heat of the moment. She was mad that the girl was running around and not listening so she reached out and hit.

–

I stopped in the middle of writing this post to go out and get a hair cut.

My head feels oddly light at this moment.

We went to Metrotown briefly afterward because on the day I went to Canada Place (link) I received a brochure from Metrotown. The brochure, if brought to Costumer Service, could be redeemed for a Metrotown bag, a $10 giftcard, and a Visitor’s Metrocard.

After going to the Guest Services orientation for my job at the Fair at the PNE, I have to say the people who worked there at Costumer Service did everything wrong.

When we approached the counter, the three workers were having a conversation and none of them looked up. When one of them broke away from the conversation, he walked over to talk to another man and playing with a computer screen right in front of where we were standing waiting for them to help up. The two women were still chatting. My mum said, “Excuse me,” to the man. The man glanced up and before my mum could say anything, he pointed to the two women and said, “They will help you.”

The two women were still having a conversation.

My whole family stood there staring at the guy until he said, “Ladies.”

That’s when they finally realized we were there.

We were told at the training for PNE to always greet guest with a smile and “Welcome to the Fair at the PNE!”

One of the women just came up to us and said, “Yes?”

No apology for the wait, just “Yes?”

Well, we redeemed the thing and left. At least we got what we went for, not a positive experience however. I felt like we were bothering them for help, not going up to Costumer Service.

–

Like I said in the post tomorrow, I will be going to Robson Square with a friend. See you at the Day 8 wrap up.

Transit Travels: Day 6 Wrap up. Also, Day 7 is a postponed. (Image Heavy)

 What’s up?

I’ve been quiet for a day. Let’s talk about Day 6 of Transit Travels, shall we?

Day 6
August 8- Canada Place/Gastown

We start the day off in a place I’m getting quite familiar with: the inside of a bus.

I didn’t get a shot of the SkyTrain, though I’ve become quite good friends with that as well.

These stairs are kind of cool:

My first destination of the day was Canada Place. And of course, I can’t resist doling out a bit of Vancouver history.

Canada Place was originally built in 1927. Canada Pavillion at Canada Place, closed after hosting Expo ’86, is known to be one of the best host-nation pavillions ever of a world exposition.

It’s a nation icon. It’s white sails make it a prominent landmark, like the Sydney Opera House and Denver International Airport.

That photo was taken from the parking lot a few blocks away. Of course, before I went that far, I made good friends with the sails, up close and personal.

 

 

Before I paid my buddies, the Sails, a visit, I met this guy, playing the bagpipes.

This picture is bigger because I didn’t get very close to him.

I forgot about this picture, it was near the sails. The national anthem:

This picture is really big because I wanted the words to be legible.

Here are some people on the deck (I think it’s a deck) of Canada Place.

I made this picture big also. That’s because I want to draw your attention to the amazing floating brochure that is not, in fact, in this guy who walked into my shot’s hand.

Obviously a trip to Canada Place is completely wasted if you don’t visit the Olympic Cauldron as well, the legacy of the very recent Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

It still gets to me how great and unifying the Olympics were.

Canada wasn’t hit as hard as the U.S. by the recession, in fact, we have it pretty good compared to them, but it was a great boost when people were still in hard times. Canada isn’t the most patriotic place, especially compared to the U.S., but this Olympics changed all of it. There were literally seas of red and white, and no one could talk about anything else. The golden goal, oh, that was amazing.

In that moment, Sydney Crosby was my absolute hero. After that moment, he went back to being meh for me. That’s another story, in fact, a story I’ve already told.

There was also the orca whale statue, “Digital Orca”, of course. I couldn’t get very close up because it was roped off because of a convention that was happening there. It looks like it was built out of lego pieces.

I also got some shots of the water and the mountains:

I walked very briefly along the seawall after I left Canada Place while trying to decide where to go next.

I went to the Sinclair Centre (because I really need to find a washroom) before I went on to my next destination and I saw these statues:

After this I went to the place I decided on while I was walking along the seawall:

Yes, I did Photoshop it very poorly. The lighting on this was really weird. The only way the words could be seen is if I did this.

I did not enjoy Gastown as much as I could have.

A woman walked up to me with a bunch of flowers saying, “God bless you.” Which was sweet, even if I’m a raging atheist. I thanked her very sincerely. She asked me where I was from, I said Port Coquitlam. I didn’t really understand what she meant, obviously. She said that she was from Africa. She was giving away flowers for donation and that no one had given her anything.

I felt bad. I’m terrible, but I don’t give out money. I’m not into charity of that variety. It’s a long story, but I hate handouts, whether to myself or to others. I believe in the “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life.” This lady seemed genuinely nice and she tugged at my heart with her story. I didn’t mind talking to her.

Then a homeless man noticed us talking and decided to siddle up and start saying strange things. I finished my conversation with the nice woman, returning her flowers because I didn’t want to take them if I wasn’t giving her money.

I started to walk away, when the homeless man blocked my way.

“Who you looking for, huh? Who you looking for, lady?” he asked.

“I’m not looking for anyone,” I replied.

“Can you give me a quarter? For bus fare? Come on, lady.” He pushed my arm.

“I’m sorry, like I said, I don’t have any money until tomorrow.” Which was the truth, I really didn’t have access to any money until Wednesday because my bank account takes 7 days to process deposits. I told the woman this as well. I don’t have any cash until Wednesday after I make a withdrawal.

“Just check, come on! How do you know you don’t have it?” He pushed my arm again.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, sincerely, I hope.

“Come on, just check!” He pushed my arm a third time.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated.

He growled and walked away. I was shaking. I’ve had this conversation many times before, once in a McDonalds. This time though, this guy was pretty aggressive about it. He looked angry and frustrated.

That pretty much made me want to get out of there quick.

Vancouver has a homeless problem and a drug problem. I’m not trying to scare you away from the downtown core, but this is the truth. Most of the time, the homeless you meet aren’t this aggressive about it, in fact they don’t even approach you.

It’s a interesting dilemma I have. I speak to everyone as equals and I speak to everyone in general. I don’t ignore people. This works for me most of the time because I’m friendly, but in this kind of situation, I’m not sure it’s a such a good thing. The African woman was lovely, I liked talking to her, but this man…

I know I’m callous about this issue, but I hated the way the man approached me. You are imposing on someone else by asking for money, you don’t harass the person about it if they say no. I suppose it’s how you get by. It might be that I’m too prideful myself. I don’t ask for help until there’s no other option and I like I said before, I don’t like handouts. I suppose it’s because of the way I am, this guy is intolerable to me.

The woman, I hoped that her life gets better because she seemed lovely and beautiful and just got a really bad hand when she came looking for a better life in Canada. I can relate, being an immigrant as well, the first few years I was in Canada, it was tough. This guy, well I certainly hope his life gets better, but it won’t happen if he keeps treating other people like that.

Well, the steam clock was only a block away so I walked (quickly) to it and took my photo.

I made my way quickly to Gassy Jack.

He’s the one Gastown, the original Downtown core, was named for. I’m fairly certain the nickname has nothing to do with his digestive system.

It was around 4 at this point and I’ve been walking for 3 hours without any water. Mind you it was a really nice day. I was sweating. Pretty gross.

My main priority at that point was to get out of Gastown quick. The closest skytrain station was Stadium-Chinatown, so I took Abbot St and walked as fast as I could. In retrospect, if I was trying to get away from the homeless and the drug addicted, I probably should not be walking toward Chinatown. There was less and less people around, but of those that were around, they seemed to be getting shabbier and less rich tourist-y which was what I saw a lot of in Gastown along with the homeless people there, asking them for money.

I walked until I could see Rogers’ Arena in the distance, which was across the street from Stadium-Chinatown (the skytrain station). I stopped right in front of a mall called International Village Shopping Centre. At this point, I was seriously dehydrated, so I went into the 7-Eleven there and bought two bottle of water (they were 2 for $2).

Yes, I did actually lie a bit to the homeless people. I had $6 on me. Which I was saving for emergencies, like dehydration because I forgot my water bottle at home.

I took the skytrain back to Waterfront station (thestation I got off to get to Canada Place) and changed over to the Canada Line. I went to Yaletown.

It was a short trip though because Yaletown was really a whim. I hadn’t really researched Yaletown (which I did with Canada Place and Gastown – because they were in the lineup of places I was thinking of going). I went to Yaletown because I was seriously in need of rich people. Yeah, that is a terrible thing to say.

I walked by Davie Village too, which according to the many brochures I took from the Tourism Vancouver office, is LGBT central in Vancouver. I didn’t have time to look around though. I’m disappointed I missed the Pride Parade last (last?) week though, speaking of.

I really need to be getting to sleep. I have my PNE orientation and training tomorrow. I got sent my schedule. I only have one shift for sure, and for 10 other time slots, I’m only “on call”. Which I’m not entirely sure what it means, although it is pretty self explanatory.

I’m worried if “on call” means they’ll call me if they need me, I won’t be able to make it there on time. The bus ride to the PNE is about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I should consider hanging out in Burnaby for the duration of the PNE probably.

–

Day 7 is postponed until Thursday or Friday because I was really tired from Day 6 and we finally got sport channels for my TV and tomorrow can’t be day 7 because I have my training. So we’ll do day 7 Thursday or Friday. Whenever I feel like it. I’m starting to run out of ideas for places to go (that don’t cost – any or that much – money).

Any suggestions for places to go in the lower mainland?

 

 

Transit Travels: Day 4 Wrap up (This post is image heavy :D)

Hi…

Day 4
August 6 – Science World 

I planned on going to the area around Science World today, but there really wasn’t much there. Mostly because the outside of Science World is being renovated or something. There wasn’t a place outside to sit, except under the trees. But all the trees were taken and the ones that weren’t the ground around it was covered in garbage.

Also, my ideal place to write has tables. There weren’t even picnic tables around. Not even one that was full.

I brought my DSLR today, so I just hovered outside taking pictures for a while.

I didn’t bother editing this one, not even with Picasa – which is my lazy program. Photoshop is the only way to go.

I decided to pop inside of Science World for a few minutes – family membership card. I saw their new dinosaur museum. It’s hard to be impressed by that after I went to the Royal Tyrell Museum though. It was also too short.

That’s the only good shot of a dinosaur I got, the lighting was terrible in the exhibit. I also bought a postcard, which I’m going to mail to Hubby, who’s still in the middle of nowhere.

Then I left. I hovered awkwardly at the map wondering what I was suppose to do with nowhere to sit. I saw on of those tiny ferries that run on False Creek and ran for it (it was about to leave).

(That wasn’t the one I took, obviously, since it’s leaving as I took it. Mine looked exactly like this one though.)

Day 4
August 6 – Granville Island

Basically I paid $6.50 and took the little boat to Granville Island. It was fun. I like boats. 😀

It’s a bit steep though, the price. Fun to do at least once, but Skytrain and Bus would get you from Science World to Granville Island for about a quarter of the price. Round trip is $11. A bus ticket is $2.50 with unlimited rides for two hours. I have a bus pass, so it’s definitely not worth it for me to take the boat more than this one time.

That was taken very subtly while no one was looking. 🙂

Anyways, here’s Granville Island from the boat:

And here’s a better picture of Granville Island from the boat:

I took some pictures from the dock.

There are more, but I’m too lazy.

Then I walked around trying to find the Kids’ Market, my favourite part about Granville Island. What? It says on the advertisements that it’s for kid and kids at heart.

While searching I came upon a street performer called Basketball Jones. He was from New Zealand. I loved his accent – although, the only accents I don’t like is the ones from Asia, I think the tones are harsher, or more emphasized, that’s why. He was really funny and his tricks were pretty cool.

He juggled four basketballs, then he got up on that unicycle. It was a great show. I gave him a bunch of change, which I wasn’t entirely sure made up a dollar. Yeah, I probably seem like a total cheapskate to him, but a lot of people left nothing and I only had a twenty dollar bill.

After that I walked around for a bit still trying to find the Kids Market. (I went the long way around and eventually got there. )

I went inside the shop that sold a lot of NHL stuff for kids and looked around. There wasn’t much to tempt me in there – I want a Kevin Bieksa jersey. I went around back and found a seat right outside the store with all the stuffed toys.

Here’s a shot of the ceiling:

There was a giant opening next to me. Here’s outside:

And even more outside:

I sat down and wrote about a page or so. It was a pretty good spot to write. I couldn’t get down to writing though. There were so many stores, so many things to see. I got up and went upstairs to my favourite store, the one that sold costumes. (I’m bad with names, Store names too… If it isn’t a brand, I probably won’t remember it.)

I spent thirty-freaking-bucks on a Gryffindor scarf. I don’t regret it though. Which is what my mum is most pissed about. Like I said, I have a problem with my spending, if I see something I want, I’ll just buy it, if I have the money.

In my hand is the postcard I mentioned buying for Hubby. I’ll have to drop it in the mailbox tomorrow.

I love scarves. I have one for every day of the school week (which is usually the extent of me wearing anything other than pajamas, look I decided to get out of the house this summer, okay?). I really do. Now I have another one! 😀

Granville Island is amazing. I had a good time, but it’s definitely not for my main purpose, which is to get out of the house to write.

I definitely will revisit this place, I just will go there to play with friends or family.

–

*I did get a ton of writing done on the commute back though.

** For bigger size/better quality and a couple of photos that aren’t included in this post, here’s my flickr photostream:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lowdiwwj/

Transit Travels: Day 3 Wrap Up and Day 4 Warm Up

 Good morning… gorgeous.

My allegeries acted up yesterday. In short my eyes totally swelled up and my my nose stuffed and I couldn’t stop sneezing. That’s hot. 😐

I didn’t get anymore writing done after I returned from the airport, which put me behind for Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m at around 7,741. Well I just have to hit 11,000 by Sunday and I’ll be good.

That brings me to…

Day 3
August 5 – YVR Vancouver International Airport

It’s the second largest airport in Canada… is what I learned from CTV News at 11 yesterday.

I went to the Domestic Flight area and sat down right by a huge window that overlooked the… well I’m not sure what it’s call. It was the part where the planes taxi up to the airport and let passengers board. These are all technical term here, people.

There was a food court right in that area, so I sat down with my Subway dinner. I got here way later than all the other places I’ve gone to, by the time I got here, I was already feeling tired and ready to go home. Because I usually went home around 5, so I can have dinner.

I usually eat lunch out.

Which reminds me, I really do need to cut down on spending. I’ve ate out at whatever place I’ve gone to these past three days and spent more money than I usually do in a month. Mind you, I rarely go shopping and my spending comes in bursts… but I’ve spent $35 in the past three days. I consider it paying the rent on the place I park my ass all day. Well I guess I’m going to have to eat at home first so I don’t have to spend as much money on food.

I got to tell you though. I’m pretty loose with my money so if I see something I really want when I’m out today, I’ll probably buy it.

At least if I eat first I won’t buy as much. My house doesn’t really have much food, so … T&T buns it is.

I got distracted from the airport.

As a writing spot, it was great. For me, the problem was that there were too many distractions. Namely, the wifi and the airplanes outside the window.

Wifi allowed me to spend a lot of time spamming people’s streams on Twitter and surf the internet in general. Basically, not writing.

The airplanes outside the window. Well. I think airplanes are pretty cool

For that reason alone, I kept looking and and watching the airplanes for a while before I realized what I was doing.

There was also a lot of people. Given.

They weren’t as distracting though. The conversation level was at a “dull roar” as my math teacher liked to call it. No one stood out, but everyone was talking.

There were a few situations where this was not true.

An adorable pair of little blond twins who looked like they were around 2. They were the cutest things I have ever seen. And I work with children regularly, through volunteering. Their grandma lifted them up to the windows and they were oohing and ahhing, IN UNISON.

Oh my goodness, I wanted to take them home with them x). But unfortunately (also fortunately for my productivity), they left to catch a flight to Calgary or Edmonton. Yes, I have really good hearing. It’s not eavesdropping if they were talking loudly near me.

There was also a woman doing her homework who asked me suddenly to look up the word “meniscus” for her, the one relating to anatomy. Apparently she was studying to be a personal trainer. She said she might as well have trained to become a doctor, so was learning all of those things already.

There was also a mum who bitched her son out. I guess, he left for a while and immediately on his return, she demanded where he was. They exchanged some other words, she started yelling at him. He didn’t exactly help the situation though, all of his replies were flippant. I’ve already learned this lesson from my mum, gotta head her off quickly when she’s yelling and tell her I’m giving in.

Good place to write overall, I was just easily distracted. And people are interesting. It’s a good place to get inspiration from, you can imagine the stories of everyone that passes you by.

I will revisit. Maybe I’ll try the International Flights area next time. It might be less distracting especially if there are a lot of tourist around there that can’t speak English. It’s harder to eavesdrop – I mean, accidentally overhear conversations, when you can’t understand them.

But then again, we get a lot of Chinese tourists, since Canada and China signed that deal. Mandarin conversations are more distracting for me than English ones.

–

Today I plan on going to Science World/Granville Island. I’m getting off of the skytrain at the Science World stop, but if there isn’t anywhere to sit, or if I just feel like it, I’m hopping on the Aquabus or False Creek Ferry or some other name, and going across the water to Granville Island.

It’ll cost me $11 bucks though for a two way trip though. Well, maybe I’ll just hang out in the area around Science World. It overlook the water and there’s a park somewhere around there according to my mum.

For now, the destination is Science World – which I still have a pass to until November…. maybe I’ll go inside. Or not. We’ll see in tomorrow’s wrap up.

Transit Travels: Before Day 3

 Good morning! I woke up at 10 after going to sleep at 3 the night before. I wasn’t feeling the tired until now, 12:30.

The plan was to go to the airport to write.But my parents are going to look at a store and apparently my 11 year old brother can’t stay home alone for two hours, so I can’t leave until around 2. By the time I get there it will be around 4 or 5. Which is usually when I come home. That’s all right, I guess. My mom has already yelled at me because I told her that. She started saying how she never asks me to do anything, blah, blah, blah. So now I’m staying home with my 11 year old brother even though all he does is watch TV in his room.

Well then, since I have lots of time before I leave, I’ll write more.

I got another letter from my friend, Hubby (because she married to me on Facebook), who is in the middle of nowhere for Air Cadets summer camp. I spent an hour writing back to her. When I go to the airport today I have to remember to buy her a postcard.

This is probably the most snail mail I’ll ever have to write in my life.

I’m wearing my Agent P shirt that I got from the Disney Outlet store in Calgary. :O

–

Transit Travels: Day 1

August 3 – Lonsdale Quay

Since I only made this blog yesterday, I’m starting to write about my adventures on the third day. Let’s take the (huge amount of time because of my parents) I have to fill to write about that.

On the first day, I decided to go somewhere, generally familiar to me – Lonsdale Quay. My brother used to love going there (mostly he loved taking the SeaBus) so we use to go there a lot. I didn’t bring my camera that day so I’m going to use a picture I found off Google Images.

I sat outside, under the giant Q, over looking the water. It was a beautiful day. I forgot to bring my power cord for my netbook and in any case, there wasn’t anywhere to plug into, so I wrote by hand. Although I’ve only gone to two different places, this one was the most productive. It was busy enough that I could sit there for a long time without being noticed, but not too busy that I couldn’t focus on my work.

The lack of wifi also helped productivity.

The food that I got was pretty damn good too. I got a Hawaiian chicken burger from a place called Rex Gourmet Burgers. Price was standard for gourmet burgers, around $9 for the meal and drink. It’s not something I can afford to do every single day, but it was definitely worth it.

Favourite place to write so far, definitely will revisit.

–

Transit Travels: Day 2

August 4 – Waves Cafe, Downtown Port Coquitlam

I think Cafes could be a great place to write, but this one wasn’t. This cafe had a constant stream of people walking through, not many of them staying. The ones that did were all spread out in the room. We were clearly noticeable and after a few hours, the staff started starting at you. I bought another drink after two hours, but I still got this feeling from them that I was overstaying my welcome.

The prices were pretty standard for a coffee shop, which is to say still overpriced. I paid almost $8 for a panini and a medium caramel frappe.

It wasn’t anything special. The frappe tasted like a frappe, pretty good, but it didn’t stand out against Starbucks or any other place where you can get coffee. The panini was not bad, but I really couldn’t find the ham under the overwhelming taste of egg. It should have been called Egg breakfast panini with some ham on the side.

I stayed there writing for a while. The goal was 7,000 words, but I stopped after getting to 6,770 because I decided I would go to the farmer’s market that was happening across the street.

It was not a great place to write. It was too empty and too quiet that any sound is amplified. When I walked in there were two women conversing loudly in Chinese, then there was a couple having an argument, then there was a group of four women that talked in unnecessarily high pitched voices who also decided to sing along to the music that wasn’t bothering me until they started singing along to it. The sounds of drinks being made was also ridiculously loud because there were only isolated groups of people talking at once.

It seems like a great community gathering place – for a small community. It was never busy to the point where I can write in peace. I need the place to be full of noise, but not deafening. I need there to be so many people having so many different conversations at once that I can’t hear or understand what individuals are saying. I don’t need to know what you did last week, I don’t need to hear about your irrational fear of bruises.

I also got a Belgium Hot Chocolate after a few hours, just so I didn’t seem like I was only there to use their wifi and their space (which I was, and they knew it). It was a bit less than $5. Which is too steep for me to pay for regularly.

It was amazingly delicious, but extremely sweet. After drinking about half of it, I was a bit sick of it. It’s great for a treat, but I wouldn’t buy it too often.

All in all, it was a nice place right in the middle of Port Coquitlam, but we’re too much of a suburb to have a “real” coffee house atmosphere.

I would revisit, but to hang out with friends, not to write.