Golden Ears Provincial Park

I went to this park last weekend and one of the lakes inside was called "Mike Lake". Not sure what the story is behind it, but it's interesting.

Let me know if you ever found a Steve Lake.

Old Highschool

After work today, it was sunny out. I went home and finished up the rest of the work and went out for a walk in the neighbourhood for an hour. I cut through this elementary school where I used to play bball with my friends. Then I went to this soccer field and sat down for 10 minutes just staring into the blank. Walked all the way back to my old highschool near my house.

I wasn't sure if I could go in there since it was after 6pm and I might need a "guest" pass. I looked the grad photo for my grad year. I looked really young and so did my friends. I also saw an old English teacher of mine from Grade 10. But he didn't recognize me. I remember that he used to say "are you telling me or are you asking me?" whenever we replied his questions.

I took a picture of the hallway in my old school. Everything looks the same and the air smell the same. I felt like I was right back in highschool again.

This reminds me that John Mayer song "No Such Thing". My roommate, Andrew, from university hated that song because he listened to it all the time one summer at work in third year. Speaking of Andrew, he's coming to Vancouver to visit in May with his gf from Toronto. This will be the first time I will have seen him since last May 24 weekend when I went to Toronto to see him.

Here's JM's video:

Eventful Weekend after Friday the 13th

So after work in White Rock on Friday, it was pretty hectic. I was supposed to meet this girl to hang out only to re-arrange it for the next day. I went to my coworker's place to watch the Vancouver "Cannots" hockey game. The game was alright though the Cannots lost the game. I was never really into hockey that much. I certainly see the attraction of it, but it's not my thing. Basketball is still Uno for me.

Anyways, on Saturday afternoon, I hung out with this girl for a few hours. We went to this park where there were very little people, considering the fact that it's very far out of the city. We drove around inside the vast park and finally stopped at this lake called Mike Lake. Weird eh? I have yet to find a "Steve Lake". If any of you guys did ever see one, let me know! As for the girl, we are gonna hang out again sometime next week. I am hoping to see her soon, as she's a very nice girl. I like her because she's easy going and fun to hang out with, but I am not sure if it will work out since I will be leaving for my travels in this fall. I am afraid that if we got serious, it'd be tough for the both of us. Long distance is definitly not an option, it's not fair to the either of us. Perhaps I am just worrying too much. I should just enjoy her company while it lasts and who knows where it would lead to.

After the date, my friend Dan and I drove down to pass seattle to Olympia to see a movie. This documentary is not playing in Canada right now. The documentary is called "51 Birch Street" Check out the website at www.51birchstreet.com. We drove 3.5 hours each way to watch that movie. I figured that I did about 10 hours of driving yesterday. And it was way too much driving!

After the feature was finished, we met this old man at the theater talking about the film. He was 82 years old and was a very interesting guy. He's currently working on his own memoir at his daughter's request because she would like to know more about his life before she was born. (This man had kids at a very late age) Anyways, he heard that we are from Canada and approached us. He offered to buy us some pizzas and just chat for a bit. We sat down with him for 2 hours until the pizza store closed down. We talked about everything from his life stories to our's. Everything from our background and hobbies to music and other films we have seen. After which, we exchanged information with each other. I am gonna write him now and then and so is Dan. I found this old man to be very intrigueing as he has had a very interesting life. He's been living in all parts of the world. His wife is from the Phillipines and he lived in Taiwan for a few years while teaching English at a major university there. They raised their kids in Germany before moving back to the states for college education.

So the time was about 11:30pm, Dan and I began our 3.5 hour drive again back to Canada. On the way back, we got to eat some Jack-In-The-Box and had our rap battle and Kareoke time. It was a good trip, tiring, but great!

To check out the Olympia Film Society, http://www.olyfilm.org/

The picture above is Dan and the old man at the pizza joint in downtown Olympia.

The Namesake - because u can relate!

So I went to see this movie last night and it's called The Namesake with Kal Penn from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.

The premise of the story is about an Indian immigrant's son getting caught up between Indian cultures and American values. I saw the preview and was immediately attracted to it because I can relate to it, except I am not Indian.

If you like a good drama, this is your movie. A bit slow as the movie tells a story of over 30 years, nevertheless a great story! Other than the death of a family member, what really struck a cord with me is the dating and marriage aspects.

He dated a white girl for a long time, but eventually married an Indian woman, only to find out that the Indian girl had an affair with her ex-boyfriend. The fact that he dates white women, but marries an Indian girl by choice is great. I can see myself in the same shoes. I think it'd be great to perserve the culture.

The whole movie was somewhat corny, yet real.

*The picture above is when the Ganguli family took a trip to the real Taj Mahal.

Bak 2 Da 403 aka Calgary

So I went to Calgary to visit a friend of mine, whom I haven't seen since last summer when he drove out to Vancouver. In October last year, he hurt him self jumping off a cliff into the water. His knees and one shoulder are screwed up and have not worked since.

But it was great to see him again, he's in good spirit.

We watched quite a few movies at his house and just chilled with his friends and parents for the most time. I also went to the Calgary tower and met up with another friend of mine from university. I had not seen him for almost 3 years now since we graduated in 2004. He's working with a big chef right now and is planning to open up his own restaurant with the current chef at his restaurant now (www.cafekoi.com) in downtown Calgary. I tried the food at this joint and it was great. May I recommend the Roasted Yam with Green Currie dip and the Salmon Steak with Miso dip.

I met up with a few other friends from when I used to work in Calgary during the summer of 2001.

Calgary was as it's usual self. Warm, cold, warm, cold again....that's Chinook for ya! It was 17 degrees one day and the next day it dropped to 5 before dropping to -5 again 24 hours later.

*the picture above is my friend stand on the glass floor in the top floor looking down. Holla at your boy, Marriott Calgary!