Thursday, April 23, 2009

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.

21 comments:

  1. Nice Vancouver pics, you seem to get out to Richmond quite a lot^^

    Anyway, would it kill the publishers to have the hardcover be the paper back Instead.

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  2. You know...it doesn't surprise me at all that the first Starbucks to close was in Richmond. I feel so out of place there now; I remember in high school, everyone used to tease me about living in no-man's land cause Richmond was kind of empty. Now when I go back to visit...it's like, holy crap!! Where did all these people come from?!

    Great pics though! Especially the view from the master bedroom. I miss the mountains and the ocean the most. ^_^

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  3. @GunStray: LoL how do you know?? Ah well that's where Iwase Books are, and where I can go eat okonomiyaki and takoyaki! Lots of otaku-related stores too ^^; Totally agree on your last statement.

    @janrhea: LOL I wanna live in Richmond now! Actually I've always wanted to live in Richmond. Just worried about it sinking when there's an earthquake there, haha. Did you hear a lot of planes when you lived there? Yeah so many new people, eh? It's hellish to drive there. So many power lines from the master bedroom, but the view is still nice :)

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  4. Hope you had a fun 420. Is weed legal there?

    Anyway, that cover looks much better.

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  5. Wow, very clean skies. Nice ^^;

    And that cover is so much better.

    Btw, how come marijuana is legal there? For medicinal purposes only or for the public to consume as and when they please?

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  6. Wow, nice looking place. Looks a shitload better then sydney >_>

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  7. Oh great! Now I'm hungry! -_-

    Nice photos, Vancouver looks great ^_^

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  8. @ yi/Konadora the happy green grass is not legal in Vancouver, but becuz we are the weed capitol of the world, many authorities do not care. In most cases, the police will just confiscate and most likely smoke it themselves. As for Richmond, yea we will sink..BAHH so what..hahahaha

    and for the starbucks, the location is horrible for the bucks, there is gauranteed money from the tenents at aberdeen, but thats about it, plus rent is high, and their lease was up.

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  9. @Yi & konadora: As lyfeprojekt has mentioned, it isn't legal, but people gathered in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery in downtown and smoke right there in the open. The police blocked off the road for them... It may not be legal, but just for one day they'll look the other way lol. And I wished I gotten this cover before I bought the paperback ^^;

    @Snark: Ah I'm sure there are some good views from Sydney. I haven't gone there yet even though it was quite a short trip from where I was born... Lots of Indonesian in Australia?

    @Michael: Ahaha, same. I wanted to buy those snacks again after I looked at them again XD

    @lyfeprojekt: That was definitely a stupid spot for a Starbucks, but hey, at least they tried. ^^;

    GO 'NUCKS GO!

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  10. Happy Anniversary!

    If I go back to Canada, Vancouver is probably the next city I want to go to. That or Toronto. Eh heh heh. (I've only been to Winnipeg.)

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  11. @聖者: Thanks! Winnipeg is actually the one place that you've mentioned that I haven't been to ^^;

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  12. All the potheads in my school were talking about 420. xD

    I've always wanted to go to Vancouver. My neighbors bought me some playing cards when they went. The illustration was of some buildings and a whale. (I think so anyway, don't know where I put it)

    My school is also Asianville, so I never really felt like a minority either. There are only 2 non-asian guys in my math class, which has around 34 people. xD

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  13. It's kinda funny, I had a (caucasian) friend about 6-7 years ago that was from Washington state's Vancouver and frequently went to Van BC, and I didn't know until last year that Van's population was primarily Asian.

    My best friend (we're both from Pennsylvania) got a job with a game company, Vicious Cycle, moved to North Carolina and met a Chinese girl from Vancouver who worked there as a concept artist (she did much of the art for Puzzle Quest and a lot of the art for that awful Matt Hazard game that came out a few months back), they got involved and the rest is history. ^_^ She apparently lived in China until she was like 7 or 8 and then moved to Vancouver and then after her family tried to force her into college she used her amazing artistic talents to get a work Visa here. Which sucks because according to the Visa she's stuck to that company, and while they were visiting the last time she got job offers from Konami and Capcom (who she's worked for before, actually Udon) and had to pass on or risk getting deported. Oh yeah, and she's how I knew about the population ratio thing... dot dot dot

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  14. @Coco: LoL lemme see those cards if you find it. I'm curious what they put on there. Heheh I guess the westcoast are more prevalent with Asians than the regions to the east.

    @Karasu-kun: I've been meaning to check out Vancouver, WA, but never really got around to it... someone told me on DC.com that there's lots of meth there... ^^;

    Oh my! She did the art for Puzzle Quest?? I love that game! That is unfortunate that she's stuck with a small company when she can move on to bigger ones because of that Visa problem =( It seems like a lot of the Asians here could be international students if you walk around downtown, but not all. One thing that I get is someone talking Chinese to me and I don't understand because I look Chinese.

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  15. and for people reading
    KINTARO in Downtown Vancouver(robson/denmen) has the best ramen in town!

    and Vancouver/Richmond is full of IZAKYA

    so if you love Asahi Super Dry(i kno i do..i consume...too many a week) you will enjoy the food here!

    the best part..multicultural to the fact that theres many different foodz

    hmm..maybe i should do a blog post on Izakya..once i get my new camera...upgrading...finally

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  16. @lyfeprojekt: I'd love to see a post on Izakayas... I don't really go out that much even to these Japanese places. I still haven't tried Kintaro yet >_< Someday I will... someday!

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  17. Its always nice to know a bit more about the Bloggers you follow.
    Vancouver looks very nice!
    Im living in the Rhineland and we dont have any fancy landscapes and stuff.Its mostly flat land in my area.
    I neverheless love this area.Dont wanna live anywhere else

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  18. @Blowfish: Home is where the heart is ^_^ Once you stay so long in one place you can't help but like it a lot. Sure there are some things that could be better with Vancouver, but hey I like where I am. Unless I get a new job that I like and have to move away XD Difficult to find the job I actually like in Vancouver.

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  19. Happy anniversary, glad to see you love the place you live. I can't exactly say the same myself, one of these days I'll do a post about where I live though, been meaning too for a long time.

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  20. @Persocom: Well I'm sure there are always something better out there, but I try to look for something good in whatever it is. I know I wish some things could be better here. I'd love to hear about where you are :D and as well as everyone who reads this ^_^

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