Musings on Canada
I just got back from Vancouver, BC and felt like writing some thoughts about my trip. Feel free to share your thoughts on Canada!
- I love living in a city that, in good driving conditions, is only 3 hrs away from Canada. You can take a fairly inexpensive trip up there for a week and it's far enough/interesting enough that it feels like a real vacation or you can, as I often do, just go up there for a day.
- The drive to Vancouver is still boring and I hate waiting at the border (more when coming back into the US). All of this is made infinitely better by music playlists.
- The most beautiful part of the drive is on the outskirts of Bellingham where there are hills and hills of beautiful trees and a really gorgeous lake of which it's name I don't know. It would be awesome to own a house there. The rest of the drive is through the boonies, consisting of lots of yellowed grass and farm animals. Like I said, music is my savior.
- There are many interesting place names to and from Vancouver such as Stillaguamish and Chuckanut Drive. WA has many other funny/great city names, mostly courtesy of Native American languages, such as: Skookumchuck, Humptulips, Walla Walla, Forks, Mock City, Puyallup, Sequim*
* almost no one whose not from WA can pronounce this city's name. Try.
- While passing through Skagit County and many, many 'Rick Larson for US Congress' signs I couldn't help but Think of Larson's interview with Stephen Colbert on Better Know a District. Colbert asked gems such as: "was the rain this year soul crushing or merely depressing" and "why does god hate your state?" Colbert also pronounced Skagit wrong, with an 'a' as in ahh where it should be pronounced with an 'a' as in apple.
- Vancouver is the only city I've been to in North America that is as/more beautiful than Seattle. They share some similarities, they're both very green, have beautiful waterfronts and amazing mountains. But I think Vancouver, the city itself, is aesthetically more pleasing than Seattle and their mountains are so huge and close...they're amazing. But we have Mt. Rainer which is an awesome sight on a clear day and our Space Needle trumps their sorry excuse of a tower (actually I think it trumps almost everyones).
- I love to try and get Canadians to say words with 'Os' in them because their pronunciation of that letter is all wrong. I'll never understand why people in BC, only hours away from Wash, pronounce their 'Os' the way everyone else in the country does. I would have thought that we would have been a positive 'O' influence on them. Whenever I watch QAF I yell "Canadian" whenever there's an extra/guest star whose accent gives them away. Obviously I do this a lot since many on that show were Canadian. "Out and about!"
- I watched some news on the Montreal shooting while I was there. The segment I watched seemed to be handled very well. There was no mood music, nothing overly dramatic just a calm and rational interviewer talking to a an expert (from Harvard?) whose written a book about the sociology of school shooters. He actually asked her really intelligent questions and let her give really intelligent answers. Neither on of them tried to blame it on music, TV, video games or goth culture. It was a nice change from much of the reporting that goes on here when something like this happens. Very different in tone.
- They have Metrotown, which is a giant mall sans silly extra attractions like amusement parks. I love shopping there but I liked it more when the exchange rate was better. The rate now is 96 USD to 100 Canadian =(
- Robson street is the best. At home, the more convenient places to shop are usually malls but I love a place like Robson street where I can walk outside and window shop, going into stores when I see something cool. It feels more European than your average shopping mall. Besides, Robson street had a Virgin Megastore (now HMV) which is always fun to go into.
- At said HMV I bought Rufus Wainwright's Want (one & two in a double disc) which I can't wait to listen to. The only bad thing about iPods is that you can't listen to your newly bought CDs with them and if you don't have your computer with you you can't load any music. Apple needs to think of a way to fix that. Maybe CD stores need to set up comps for you to load your recently legally purchased music onto your iPod in the store, just in case you don't have your own computer handy.
- I saw no less than 8 bear statues while walking around downtown Vancouver. No wonder Colbert hates Canada.
- There's a fun place called Punjab Market where I once bought a sari for a bridesmaids dress and where you can get Indian sweets. Yay Indian sweets!
- Smarties are better than M&Ms and I don't know that African child or slave labor is used when picking the cocoa that's made into chocolate candy, which I do know about M&Ms =( They probably do but ignorance is bliss!
- Canada actually has a channel, Much Music, that plays music videos sometimes. That was also a nice change.
- The White Spot has better breakfast then Denys. But to counterbalance this, people in Canada dip their fries in gravy...ewwww!
Some icons dedicated to Vancouver:
1
2
3
- I love living in a city that, in good driving conditions, is only 3 hrs away from Canada. You can take a fairly inexpensive trip up there for a week and it's far enough/interesting enough that it feels like a real vacation or you can, as I often do, just go up there for a day.
- The drive to Vancouver is still boring and I hate waiting at the border (more when coming back into the US). All of this is made infinitely better by music playlists.
- The most beautiful part of the drive is on the outskirts of Bellingham where there are hills and hills of beautiful trees and a really gorgeous lake of which it's name I don't know. It would be awesome to own a house there. The rest of the drive is through the boonies, consisting of lots of yellowed grass and farm animals. Like I said, music is my savior.
- There are many interesting place names to and from Vancouver such as Stillaguamish and Chuckanut Drive. WA has many other funny/great city names, mostly courtesy of Native American languages, such as: Skookumchuck, Humptulips, Walla Walla, Forks, Mock City, Puyallup, Sequim*
* almost no one whose not from WA can pronounce this city's name. Try.
- While passing through Skagit County and many, many 'Rick Larson for US Congress' signs I couldn't help but Think of Larson's interview with Stephen Colbert on Better Know a District. Colbert asked gems such as: "was the rain this year soul crushing or merely depressing" and "why does god hate your state?" Colbert also pronounced Skagit wrong, with an 'a' as in ahh where it should be pronounced with an 'a' as in apple.
- Vancouver is the only city I've been to in North America that is as/more beautiful than Seattle. They share some similarities, they're both very green, have beautiful waterfronts and amazing mountains. But I think Vancouver, the city itself, is aesthetically more pleasing than Seattle and their mountains are so huge and close...they're amazing. But we have Mt. Rainer which is an awesome sight on a clear day and our Space Needle trumps their sorry excuse of a tower (actually I think it trumps almost everyones).
- I love to try and get Canadians to say words with 'Os' in them because their pronunciation of that letter is all wrong. I'll never understand why people in BC, only hours away from Wash, pronounce their 'Os' the way everyone else in the country does. I would have thought that we would have been a positive 'O' influence on them. Whenever I watch QAF I yell "Canadian" whenever there's an extra/guest star whose accent gives them away. Obviously I do this a lot since many on that show were Canadian. "Out and about!"
- I watched some news on the Montreal shooting while I was there. The segment I watched seemed to be handled very well. There was no mood music, nothing overly dramatic just a calm and rational interviewer talking to a an expert (from Harvard?) whose written a book about the sociology of school shooters. He actually asked her really intelligent questions and let her give really intelligent answers. Neither on of them tried to blame it on music, TV, video games or goth culture. It was a nice change from much of the reporting that goes on here when something like this happens. Very different in tone.
- They have Metrotown, which is a giant mall sans silly extra attractions like amusement parks. I love shopping there but I liked it more when the exchange rate was better. The rate now is 96 USD to 100 Canadian =(
- Robson street is the best. At home, the more convenient places to shop are usually malls but I love a place like Robson street where I can walk outside and window shop, going into stores when I see something cool. It feels more European than your average shopping mall. Besides, Robson street had a Virgin Megastore (now HMV) which is always fun to go into.
- At said HMV I bought Rufus Wainwright's Want (one & two in a double disc) which I can't wait to listen to. The only bad thing about iPods is that you can't listen to your newly bought CDs with them and if you don't have your computer with you you can't load any music. Apple needs to think of a way to fix that. Maybe CD stores need to set up comps for you to load your recently legally purchased music onto your iPod in the store, just in case you don't have your own computer handy.
- I saw no less than 8 bear statues while walking around downtown Vancouver. No wonder Colbert hates Canada.
- There's a fun place called Punjab Market where I once bought a sari for a bridesmaids dress and where you can get Indian sweets. Yay Indian sweets!
- Smarties are better than M&Ms and I don't know that African child or slave labor is used when picking the cocoa that's made into chocolate candy, which I do know about M&Ms =( They probably do but ignorance is bliss!
- Canada actually has a channel, Much Music, that plays music videos sometimes. That was also a nice change.
- The White Spot has better breakfast then Denys. But to counterbalance this, people in Canada dip their fries in gravy...ewwww!
Some icons dedicated to Vancouver:
1
2
3