So after the gruelling exercise of arriving at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and falling into an exhausted sleep, we started our lives for the next week as graduate students.
Allow me to explain.
Green College is a graduate facility at UBC. It houses around 100 graduates where most of them spend several years excelling in their field of choice whilst they diligently forgo most of the fun things in life (except maybe Civ4) and work many many silly hours for a degree (doctorate usually) in their field of choice. So Simon and I were technically living like students only without all the hard work and study that usually goes along with it - probably more like the pauper friends of students, as we were actually sleeping on the couch of students.
One of the first things I noticed was the abundance of squirrels. (actually that's a lie, the first things that I noticed was the beauty of the Green College facility - but then my attention was right onto the squirrels) Australia is completely squirrel-less, so I wasn't used to their playful antics... bouncing across the grass... just so cute. Every time I commented on something of this nature within earshot of a native Canadian, for some reason they would shoot me funny looks mutter something about vermin. I guess that time spent with my rat Max Factor skewed my definition of what was cute. Most commonly the possum that you see in Melbourne are the Brushtail possums. They are about the size of domestic cats and they are very noisy at night. They often hiss in disconcerting ways if you wander around the suburbs where I grew up. They are also known to destroy houses if they are left unchecked in your roof.
Simon & I had a great time mingling with the students and meeting everyone. We had a bit of celebrity status because we were travelling and had seen the outside world. This Maciek put to good use by sampling our brains for the cool internet videos that we enjoy and putting together a showcase of them for his fellow students. Apparently they don't even get time to look at things like Zero Punctuation... tragic I know...
Vancouver
One of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far. Breathtaking snow capped mountains stretching far above the city skyline. What more could you want?
Mika, Maciek's amazing girlfriend at some point in her busy doctor-learning schedule found time to create a scavenger hunt for Simon and I in order for us to familiarise ourselves with the city and campus. When we get to upload our photos I will make sure to update this post with a scan of our scavenger hunts, the hints and our photos. For anyone that is in Vancouver or UBC, I would love for you to do the same scav hunt and post links to your work in our comments.
It was very strange to run into a friend of my friends from home who attends UBC. (more scarily it was an ex of an ex) I hope that he got back in contact with some of the crew from home. I'm sure they would all love to hear from James.
Being put to good use
Our good hosts demanded very little of us for our stay. Only company and to not be too distracting on our stay. But we were able to immortalise our stay in a video about trust that Maciek was putting together. Simon and I were required to show interest and disinterest (at different times) to people explaining the names of objects. It was a fun if strange task for the day.
Highlights
Having a bike. Riding around the lakes in Vancouver and a bit of the city was just brilliant. I didn't realise how much I missed having my own independent form of transport, my own way of getting around under my own power. I think that when we get to Holland a bike is going to have to be an early purchase.
Indiana Jones 4 - for those who haven't seen it yet. Please skip the next section - spoilers ahead.
We had a fantastic time heading out with Maciek's housemate Grant. Midnight screening of IJ4. The surprise sequel (I sure wasn't expecting a fourth film) to the beloved Indiana Jones trilogy both Simon & I grew up on.
The most surprising thing when watching the film was the wooden acting by Harrison Ford in the opening scenes in the warehouse scenes. It was almost like he had forgotten how to be Indiana. I have seen him play some amazing characters in his time from the scruffy scoundrel Han Solo to the hunted John Kimble in The Fugitive and it really surprised me to have the first lines of dialogue seem so stiff. I love Cate Blanchett... however I think the character was a bit like Darth Mall... potential (apart from the occasional accent slip) but ultimately no substance. She also didn't have the menace of some of the other villains from previous films.
I did absolutely love how they brought back Marion from the first film... ah... that woman has a pinball smile if ever I saw one. The ending was so disappointing. It was like Spielberg has run so completely out of ideas and so is re-hashing his old hits and trying to mix them together and hope no-one notices. The ending of this film was seriously a big let-down. The bad guy explodes because she had too much information in her head... um... that would probably leave someone catatonic or maybe Spielberg was trying to re-live the excitement of the bad guys melting from the first film. In my opinion, not a patch on the earlier films - but it was a fun action/adventure.
Second Hand Bookshops
Simon and I both love to read. We both have many many books at home and we are starting to carry quite a library with us on our travels. Here in Vancouver we have spent many hours wandering through many many book shops... And I found Player of Games - Ian M Banks (recommended to me by Michelle (thanks honey) which was awesome).
A real roller coaster ride even if it was a little like listening to Rimmer describe his Risk campaigns at times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment