Vancouver and the Things That Are In It

This is Vancouver. Some would say it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world. For me it's just where I live. April 20th is something that's quite well-celebrated in Vancouver, a day of smoking marijuana, something very popular here. But to me and my family, it's the anniversary of our arrival in Vancouver. This year is our 19th year in Vancouver and I enjoy every year of it. I'm thankful for my parents for taking me here because it is a place I love. But not that I don't love my old city, Jakarta, either... They're both very important cities to me, it's just I'm right here in Vancouver, s'all.

The two pictures above are taken 20 blocks away from my house. Up on a hill. I was considering crossing the street and stop in the middle to take a better picture, but decided it might peeve the drivers that I stopped the traffic lights for ^^;

The weather is very moderate, but we get everything here instead of just rain and sun like in Jakarta. We sometime get snow (we got more than we used to this year) and usually a lot more rain. Our summer doesn't go higher than around 30 degrees celsius. And the winter doesn't get lower than around -15 degrees celsius. Though I think I've been too comfortable that I get cold and hot easily even though it's not much of a dip or peak in the temperature. I still like it better here because it's cooler than Jakarta. I was always dizzy and complaining about the heat back there...

This is the front yard of my house... I was hoping the picture would turn out better but it looks overexposed. Why? Well it's really warm and sunny today! I fixed the picture a little to show a bit more colour. We don't have much grass around the house so we don't worry about mowing the lawn much.

This is taken from the master bedroom of the house. Great great view. Sometimes I forget that we have this view in the house since I tend to stick in front of the computer too much ^^;

Another thing I love about Vancouver is the amount of Asian products that is readily available. That is because of the amount of Asians that live around here, not just in Vancouver, but its surrounding cities, Richmond, Burnaby, Surrey, etc. I think Richmond is almost like one big Chinatown, so much so that the first Starbucks that closed in Canada is in Richmond. I also don't feel out of place in this city because Asians aren't that much of a minority here. My school always had at least 65% Asians, most of them are Filipinos.

Uh anyway, back to the topic... Lots of Asian products readily available. We have stores here called T&T where they sell lots of Asian food, drinks and other groceries. There are lot of other Asian stores that sell books, CDs, DVDs, and foods as well. But of course there are also places that sell bootlegs...

I've been meaning to show these pictures since the end of March, but the "Your Room Giveaway" on DannyChoo.com sorta delayed me in posting them. So here are some of those products:

Karinto, Cocoa Pretz, Teriyaki Nori (seaweed) and a cream horn. I saw karinto at DannyChoo.com before, but it looked like... excrement. I overlooked the appearance and bought it anyway. Opened it, ate it... and LOVED it! Great stuff. I need to find it again now haha. The Cocoa Pretz is pretty good. I loves my seaweed, especially the teriyaki kind. Need to get these two again soon.

And the cream horn... Long time ago after watching Lucky Star I bought this and thought it'd be like the one that Konata eats. Well first thing you notice would be the non-choco cream in the centre and the chocolate coating. This is NOT the choco cornet that Konata eats all the time. It's very different. The one that Konata eats is soft whereas this one is more crispy, kinda like a pastry instead of bread-like. Not something I will buy all the time. It's a bit pricey too, at $1.19 at T&T.

Megami Super Deluxe. I wasn't going to get this but a lot of people were showing off their copy at DannyChoo.com that I can't help but buy it too. Good thing was, I knew where to get it for sure. At Iwase Book Store in Yaohan Centre in Richmond. I haven't actually opened it yet, though...

Ok, this one I didn't get from Vancouver... but it's from Amazon.ca. At least they ship it for free to my house, so there! A few days later after my rant about the atrocity of the paperback cover I received this hardcover on my doorsteps. I haven't looked through the book stores to see if they have it, but it's still cheaper to buy from Amazon. I'm quite ticked off at what it says in the black box on the back cover... This exclusive cover "[makes] it the perfect addition to any Haruhi fan's personal library!" Well eff you! Why can't you make the paperback cover look as good as the hardcover?? That cover should've been better so that it can be as close as possible to perfect for anyone!

Anyhoot... That is Vancouver and some of the stuff in it. I would've tried to take pictures of other landmarks such as Science World, GM Place, Harbour Centre or the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, but you can easily find those on the internetz and even in some movies. Plus I'm lazy to go around taking pictures... heheheh. If you want to see more of Richmond and some of the cherry blossoms around Vancouver, check out chun's blog.