CANADA - of Vancouver & Victoria

Hi everyone, happy new year!

It's been a while since I last updated my blog, but one of my resolution this year to continue writing, posting, updating about my life in the tiny space :)

To start off, I'm going to write about my trip to Canada, where I visited Vancouver and Victoria, which is just north of Seattle, Washington. 

I've been in the States for almost 7 years, and I've always wanted to go the country up north. In fact, I even got my VISA to Canada in my third year here, but I didn't get to go due to some reasons. Finally, I got to cross out the trip on my "US' bucket list" after so many years!

The trip lasts for 7 days and 6 nites, in conjunction of the new year long weekend, and we spent our times mostly at Vancouver and Victoria. 

On the first day, we woke up super early on the morning, as early as 3.30am, to board our flight to Seattle at 6.50am. We took the plane to Seattle, and boarded the bus to Vancouver as it's more economical to fly domestic during this holiday, ie peak, season. We reached Seattle-Tacoma Airport at around 8.30am and took the 9.30am shuttle to Vancouver downtown. The bus trip was around 4.5 hours. We slept all the way, except when crossing the border, because of waking up too early! 

Filling in the custom declaration form

On the bus to Vancouver

At around 2.30pm, we reached Vancouver downtown, but because the bus driver went to many places to drop off the passengers, we only checked into our hostel at 3.30pm. We stayed at St. Clair Hostel, which is located at one of the many heritage buildings in Vancouver. We got a private room for 2, cost around $44 per nite per room, which is pretty cheap I'd say. However, the shared washroom conditions were so-so, but still okay la. I gave it 6/10 points on the 1st impression. 

First look of Vancouver

For the meal at Vancouver, we chose a Malaysian restaurant that got pretty good reviews on Yelp, called Banana Leaves. It's at the Davietown area, around 20-minute walk from our hostel. I got Malaysian Iced Coffee ($4) and Curry Mee ($13). The food was just okay, comparing to the one served in M'sian restaurants in the States, 6/10 is my score~ On a side note, eating out in Canada was pricier than in US. Usually, it cost $7-8 for a bowl of curry mee here.

Sarah's mojito mocktail and my Malaysian iced coffee ~very kao~

Mee Curry

Saw this building on the way back from the restaurant

After the meal, we took the bus to VanDusen Botanical Garden to see the Christmas Light Exhibition. The student ticket was around $15. The weather was not that good that night, it was raining, so it was wet and cold at the park....

Entire things made up by lego!

LIKE the candy cane!

On a closer look, the flowers were made with plastic bottle! so creative!

Our hostel room

This is basically how we spent the 1st day in Vancouver. 

-to be continued-

err..

was trying to do a quick update on my life and write about the movie i just watched in mandarin.. spent 20 minutes typing 3 paragraphs. decided that i couldn't do it anymore and deleted the post. #fail :(

fear

sometimes, when you have the feeling that everything is so perfect right now
then you start to think that there is no way you can hold on to each and everything
and the fear of losing starts surroundings you
and it makes me wonder whether the thought of losing will start attracting the force of losing

food...

Ahhhh!!! Not a good idea to visit the newspaper's food column at midnight.... http://www.guangming.com.my/node/113189?tid=46
so hungry....

I want a bowl of steamy 粿汁...

When?

******

I was hoping to write something cheerful after my blog makeover. Yet, it seems that problems can't stop trailing me. Sometimes, I felt I'm gonna have a breakdown. Is it time to give everything up? Why things are not going well as I imagined they will.. Why is it so hard to have the "normal" way of life?

Maybe, it's the norm life. The up and down. But, whenever I was at the low side, people around me still have high hopes for me. Well, people around you see something good that you won't recognize when you're in the middle of the mud. They always wish me the best. Their good encouragements always help me keep my chin high up.

Still, I'm wondering when the good things are coming? If they are not gonna come, when is the right time put an end to everything? Am I wasting my time waiting when I should be doing something better?

O.O

WOw, it's been 5 months since I last updated the site. Maybe it's time for me to get started on blogging again. I've made some changes on the layout as of now. I don't have any fun things to write yet. Well, I'll write something later...

...

她说, 一觉醒来，就自然而然该知道怎么办了。那如果彻夜难眠呢？
事实是，事情是不一夜消失的。
我以为我走了好久好远，原来我一直在原地踏步。
挫折的滋味很难受，可是不管再苦再痛，都要去学习忍受与克服。
或许永远一帆风顺的一生就不算是完整的人生了。