Cathy in Canada!

In July, Cathy came to Canada with the Maple Leaf Vancouver/ Victoria summer camp as a supervisor.  Unless financially wealthy to Chinese standards, getting to visit Canada as a Mainlander on an individual tourist visa doesn't really happen.  Cathy was able to come on a "group tour" visa, which is easier to get for Mainlanders because the financial prerequisites aren't as demanding.  Being one of the supervising adults on the tour, having a responsible colleague to take care of the kids (thanks go out to Ms. Rosa Du from Tianjin), and staying at an accommodating home-stay were the major reasons why Cathy was able to hang out with me quite a bit away from the students.  She even got to visit with some of my friends and family, and catch up with old friends too.

This summer, Cathy visited my native Vancouver!

I went along with Cathy, Ms. Du, and the Maple Leaf students  to tour around Vancouver.  We went to Gastown, Chinatown, Canada Place, and Robson Street all on Cathy's first day in Canada.

Cathy and I got away from the kids and visited with my high school buddy Henry and my Toastmasters friend Puja. 

It was kind of funny being on a tour with Maple Leafers while on summer break.  It was as if I never really got away from them. Some of the kids were from Wuhan and knew who I was.  They weren't really surprised to see me.  I think they expected me to show up because Cathy was leading their tour group...

In the evening on Cathy's first day, my friends Henry and Puja came downtown to meet Cathy.  Fun conversation ensued at the expense of my dignity.  For example...

Cathy: So what was Paul like when you met him, Puja?

Puja: He wasn't always like this.  Actually, when he first walked into Toastmasters, he was a 'lil bitch...

Paul: WTF!? That's a lie! That's total BS!

Henry: Hahaha! Before learning how to speak up, Paul was a 'lil bitch! I totally see that!

Cathy: [uncontrolled laughter]

Puja: Yeah, he was kind of a 'lil bitch! But he learned fast.

This is some good proof that the Toastmasters method works...

Cathy braving the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

 The next day, the tour group went up Grouse Mountain.  I was supposed to meet them up there via the Grouse Grind, but the tour group left earlier than I expected, so I didn't get to hike.  Instead, I met them at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Cathy admiring the natural environment.

Cathy admired the enormous trees and fresh air. Sadly, Wuhan is pretty much devoid of these things. I took them for granted for such a long time while in Canada throughout my childhood. I now see that I should have done a lot more hiking in my youth. Seeing Cathy admire such things made me cherish Vancity's accessibility to natural environments.

That evening, I went out with Cathy to go shopping on Robson Street, then drove to West 4th Ave to hang out with my buddy Anthony.  Cathy met him when he visited me in China last year.  We walked to the local Safeway, where Cathy wanted to buy typical North American snack food for her family.  After that, we went down W 4th Ave to watch the sunset on the Granville Street Bridge.

When we got back to the hotel, Cathy and I stopped a female student trying to leave the hotel dressed like a hooker - oodles and boodles of make up, gravity-defying short dress, and an attitude problem when we told her to get back.  Where the f*** was a foreign 15 year old girl to go?  Granville Street nightclubs?  Downtown Eastside?  She didn't even know the city's layout.  She should have thanked us for doing her a favor, lest she wanted to get preggers via date rape. Cathy told me a story that another counselor back in China told her as a warning to be vigilant on supervision while abroad...

A few summers ago, on another summer camp, some kids escaped the hotel and got piss-ass drunk.  They made a ruckus and began to scare locals.  They even threw a girl at a car...so the story goes. Luckily, no one got hurt, although the police got involved and it was quite an embarrassing fiasco.

Sigh. The bad tomatoes of Maple Leaf...what will they think of next?

Cathy and her crew left for Victoria the next morning.  3 days later, I went to visit her when she was available.  The kids were busy with their own home-stays.  We went out with Ms. Du and a Cantonese girl at Cathy's home-stay named Arlene.  Arlene was a student in Victoria.  She brought us to a dim sum restaurant, claiming it was better than dim sum than her native Guangzhou.  It was Cathy's first time to try Cantonese dim sum.  Needless to say, she liked it a lot.  [Cough] Probably because it's Chinese [cough].

Arlene, Ms. Du, and Cathy at a dim sum restaurant in Victoria's Chinatown.

After dim sum, we went to Roger's Chocolate and Roots to buy some gifts for Ms. Du and Cathy's relatives.

The next day, I went back to Victoria to hang out with just Cathy for another day trip.  We started by going to an Irish pub, where Cathy and I shared Shepard's pie, calamari, and an Scottish beer called Innis and Gunn.  It was delicious.  The premise around Innis and Gunn is that it's brewed in old Scotch Whisky barrels, giving it a distinct flavor. We both liked it.

Cathy knocking back an Innis and Gunn at the Irish Times Pub

From there, we walked around Victoria's downtown for a while taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  We jumped on a bus to go to the Cragdarroch Castle, which proved to be a very interesting experience.  The history of the Dunsmuir family is pretty messed up.

The Empress Hotel.  Plans to eat at its restaurant were disrupted by the fact that it's so damn expensive.

In front of the BC Legislative Assembly 

Cathy "playing" the piano at Cragdarroch Castle

 A few days later, my parents came back to Vancouver from their vacation in Florida, NYC, Washington DC, and Ottawa.  We immediately got onto a BC Ferry with my Grand-Aunt Peggy to Victoria.  Cathy was working, so we visited the butterfly museum and one of the many wineries in Saanich while waiting for her to get off work.  We all went out for dinner at a great restaurant called Pagliacci's after we picked her up. It was highly recommended by my mom's friend, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Mom and I are the family wine connesseurs.  We did a tasting of
Church and State Winery while Aunt Peg and Dad watched us.

Our awesome dinner at Pagliacci's in Victoria.  Probably the best
Italian pasta and cheesecake you'll ever eat can be tried here.  The company made it even better. 

After dinner, we drove Cathy back to her home stay in Saanich.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Her home-stay was a behemoth of a pastoral house.  It was also very clean and beautiful, surrounded by a stunning garden and very big grass lawn.  I was glad that Cathy got to experience that sort of life for once.  Bloody hell, she deserved it for how much work she puts in back at the school in Wuhan.

On Cathy's last day, she and her group relocated back to Vancouver.  My good friend and old colleague Hedy came out to visit Cathy and myself at Richmond Center.  She used to work with us in Wuhan, but relocated after her first year.  And despite our visit being a typical mall walk, we enjoyed each other's company and caught up quite a bit.  Thanks Hedy.

In conclusion, Cathy's visit to Vancouver/ Victoria was a really great experience for her.  She really enjoyed herself visiting my friends and family while successfully taking care of a group of Maple Leafers.  She saw my homeland and hopefully likes what she saw.

Our good friend Hedy came to visit us at Richmond Center on Cathy's last day.

Muay Thai With Kru Suphan/ End of summer 2012

Okay, so I sort of lied about updating this thing throughout summer. I have 1 more week before I go back to Wuhan.  It also happens that I'm in Seoul right now and it's raining hard, so I guess I have time to update this thing.

This summer has proved to be both one of the best and worst.  I'll fill in the details in later posts, but I'll just summarize right now.  Travelling to Ottawa, Boston, Seattle and Seoul has squashed the travel bug in me...at least for now.  Getting to see my brother Rob after two years was definitely a big deal.  The only thing that prevents it from being the best thing during summer was the fact that he finally managed to beat my Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat. I'll get you for that, Rob.

In Vancouver, I got to hang out with my awesome friends and do really cool activities. Some highlights include yachting (thanks Jeremy and Fei), firing lead down range (thanks Jer and Mark), eating delicious white food (thanks Kristy) and drinking bubble tea (thanks Henry), figuring out how to finally navigate Richmond (thanks Hedy), and having quality manversations with various guy friends.

The two biggest highlights were about Cathy and Honey. One was good and one not so good.  Cathy visited Vancouver with a bunch of Maple Leaf students, and I had the privilege of "kidnapping" her for a couple of hours here and there to be with her in my native BC.  She managed to see my friends Anthony, Henry, and Puja, as well as Mom, Dad and my Aunt Peggy.  That was the good thing.  The not so good thing was the death of my pet dog and best friend Honey.  Again, I'll fill in details in later posts.

Okay.  Since I failed to put out a large post on my Muay Thai lessons in Bangkok, I'll just post a video.  In short, my time with Kru Suphan and his assistant Mami was so fun and educational that I'm going back for 1 more week at the end of my 5 week holiday next year.