Vancouver, BC (15-18 February 2007)

Thursday
Haha, well today was interesting. To sum it up: I hate Dulles airport.

With schools being closed again, Jen kindly offered to drive me to Dulles, and even though I was there with at least 80 mins to spare, a combination of massive line-ups and me lining in the wrong line twice meant I missed my 8:36 flight. Luckily the woman at the desk reseated me on an 8:50 flight through Seattle that actually got me to Vancouver earlier – at 1:50pm. Yay for that!

[start of rant]

Unfortunately I was delayed in security (because I am clearly a bad person!) for 45minutes as I was selected for ‘extra screening’. As such, I missed my rescheduled flight and had to wait for 2 and a half hours in a United service line. There I made such errors as presuming the call centre would be faster and explaining my situation. The woman at the counter was incredibly unapologetic stating categorically it was ‘my fault’ and therefore she was going to be unhelpful. Any requests made by me for the location of my baggage were met with ‘well it’s not going to make this flight so you can deal with it in Vancouver’. Well fuck you woman!

Some people should NOT be in customer service.

[end of rant]

And so it was that I arrived into Vancouver at 9pm, only a mere 30hrs behind schedule. Once again I was sans luggage, but seeing all my old friends and roommates again was awesome and more than made up for it. Sebastian, Rob, Hanneke and I stayed up chatting till about 1am and it was great.

The most interesting thing was meeting Sean and Kevin – the new replacements for Isaac and I. Sean is an exchange student from Cape Town in South Africa and Kevin is another local student. Our replacements share many of our eccentricities and personalities, with Kevin going home most weekends, having his meals cooked and generally staying out of the others’ business. Sean and I have the exchange student thing in common, which accounts for a lot, but we also share a passion for dance music and the Dutch (ahem!).

Friday
Today was my first full day back in Vancouver and already I’m really glad I made the decision to return. Although many of my friends aren’t here because they have already headed home for the holiday (it’s reading week here), I managed to do fairly well. My luggage still hasn’t arrived and my cell phone battery is rapidly dying so we’ll see which one gives in first. Something tells me Air Canada aren’t nearly as efficient as United at returning lost luggage. They clearly need to lose more of it to improve their practices!

Due to the aforementioned lack of luggage (which came to define my return visit to Vancity), I spent most of my time whining about its loss and buying replacement items. It also meant I had to re-wear my old clothes. Eugh! If this luggage doesn’t come soon it will be one smelly Tristan my friends get to meet.

This afternoon I met with Vivian, a friend from two of my classes last term. We discussed the upcoming AIDS conference and how she could help out. Very positive stuff. We also made a quick trip to the UBC Bookstore so I could buy my UBC patch – the one I had intended to purchase about 4 months ago. I got a really nice one and Vivian had a chance to practice her French with our Quebecois server. Fun times.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find my C$90 that I was convinced I had packed in my luggage somewhere to no avail. Much of the time was also spent preparing for tonight’s party.

Before to long it was time for Gage E13B to again do what it does best – host parties. By all accounts it was AWESOME. Early on, numbers were down on last time (we even had to call around to get people to come at the start – bummer, eh?), but was SO much fun. Best night I’ve had in ages, if only because all my buddies were there partying with me. Clayts came with his new girl (he’s a changed man I tells you), all the E13B peeps were there (except the new Isaac – no surprises there), there was great music and it lasted longer than last time too boot (helped by the fact that we knew the RAs on duty).

Ended, as all good parties do, with a big group of us going to the top of BuTo with Chris. We didn’t go right to the top as there were too many of us, but we did take some great stupid photos and throw moss at the ground. Good times. To top it off there was a fire alarm at 2am. This was surprisingly good as I had yet to go to bed and it gave me a chance to see a whole bunch of people I hadn’t yet caught up with.

Saturday
The loss-luggage issue continued to be a huge issue for me as my cell phone died last night. This meant that even if the luggage had arrived I had no way of confirming it. I called Air Canada to try and explain this predicament, but they were rather unhelpful. Grr! At least I now know the luggage is in Vancouver! In fact, it’s been there since 3pm yesterday so c’mon guys … why don’t I have it yet!?!?!

The day was complete at 4pm when my luggage ARRIVED and the fun began.

Plans for the big party that night were split between the exchange party that Sean was going to – a costume party at Fairview, or a Rob, Erin, etc. party at a house nearby. I made the decision to go to the Canadian party as I actually knew more people there (!) and wanted to end my time in Van at a place I knew would be good.

In the end this was the best decision ever as we had a ball. Met loads of Jess & Erin’s friends at Annie’s place and really enjoyed myself. That may have had something to do with the alcohol, but probably more a combination of having new clothes, my luggage and being with awesome people. The photos speak for themselves. Fun times abounded, especially revolving a bottle of beer (“once you go browny-translucent, you never go back”), my “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” tshirt and a yoga ball.

That was, until I thought it would be an awesome idea to climb a BC Hydro power box and leap into the tree. Well, Daniel had just done it and been fine, so I thought, well hell with it – me too. In the end I picked the one part of the tree that had just been trimmed and landed stomach first onto a big branch. Eek!! It winded me and I still have marks and will do for some time, but all is generally good.

So the best night ever ended perfectly with a LONG walk back to Gage – predicted at about 2hrs until …. A 99 BUS came to pick us up! How RANDOM was that?! It was awesome because not only did they pick us up, but they drove 100m down the road and picked up our friends. Talk about service!! All faith has been resorted in Vancouver as a city of incredibly friendly people.

We all went back to Jess’ apartment for my first taste of KD (Kraft Dinner – mac’n’cheese), nachos and watching Erin & Adam’s wedding video. Awesome fun, but the video and wedding look … well awkward!

Sunday
After a few days of late starts and bumming around the house, I had huge plans for my final day in Vancity, and I think I met most of my objectives. Well, except for the haircut and piercings, but that’s ok – I can do them anywhere.

A group of us (past and present exchange students) headed to the Chinese New Year parade. Vancouver is known for its ethnic populations and this parade was no exception. Well executed, huge and with lots of firecrackers – simply put it was great. It also seemed apt that I was ending this trip with something that just screams “Singapore” to me. Tying the two trips together pretty well, don’t you agree?

As I mentioned, this trip was made with many new exchange students. Some of the basic dynamics are there from last term, but to be honest, it’s just not the same. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t know a lot of them, but the personalities that existed in last term’s batch aren’t replicated here. There are FAR less Aussies and far more Europeans too, so all-in-all a more diverse group.

Because we arrived so early to the Parade (about 2hrs in advance actually!), we went for a walk around the route, eating bao along the way. Mmm… nothing like Steamed BBQ pork buns to cheer me up! The parade itself was all it should have been – colourful, noisy, imaginative and above all proud. It was amazingly inclusive too, with the Brazillian community presenting a few floats, along with almost every other minority in Vancouver. Interesting, eh?

After the parade I finally met with one of my friends from Singapore (!). Jeff studied at SFU, the other Uni in Vancouver, and so after much cell phone tag we decided to meet and have lunch at Tim Hortons for one last time. It was an awesome way to end my time in Vancouver and a great example of how things have come full circle.

Before too long, however, it was time for me to hop on a taxi to the airport. That was definitely the saddest I’ve felt for a LONG time. I nearly cried many times, including at transit in Portland. I miss UBC and Vancity SO much, but I consol myself with Facebook, Skype and the fact that I’ll be back soon!

Sunday ended with a safe arrival (WITH LUGGAGE!) in LA. My relatives, Chris, Lillian and David all came to pick me up, which was awesome. Now it’s definitely bed time!