With that being said, I am mere hours away from my new adventure. I am leaving for Amsterdam in just a few short hours to bring in the year 2008 with 2 of my best friends! We haven't spent New Year's Eve together in 2 years and this year we get to celebrate it together in Europe! In addition, I will be traveling around Europe for a bit over a month which has been a trip I only day dreamed about and is now my reality. I am definitely a very fortunate girl.
Before I embark on this great adventure, I thought I would put together a photo timeline to fill everyone in on my life in Vancouver over the past few months. Life has certainly been great and in the words of my friends Joe and Dan, "It definitely lacked suckage!"
Chateau Ruben-Horng: This is what I call Rose and Joe's house. I spend quite a lot of time there and with good reason. A typical time would include elaborate spreads of food, drinking like a maritimer, acoustic guitar jam sessions, movies, and best of all, good belly clutching laughs. What would usually start off as me going there for an evening of dinner would end with me not returning home until days later.
Chateau Ruben-Horng: View of the city on a foggy day.
Chateau Ruben-Horng: View of the city at night from their balcony.
On Halloween, we watched the fireworks from their balcony. First, its amazing that people even do fireworks for Halloween. Second, it's the most spectacular view to have a panoramic view of the city which means we were able to see fireworks go off from various spots throughout the city! It's pretty amazing.
One of my favourite things to do is walk around the city. Here is my view when I'm walking across the Burrard Bridge which is the bridge that connects Kitslano (where I live) to the downtown core. The city is so small that it only takes about 20 minutes.
Vancouverites are so polite!
View of Granville Bridge from the Burrard Bridge.
Vancouver Public Library (no joke. It's that nice!)
Vancouver's Chinatown: entrance
Dr. Sun Yut Sen Garden
View of the city from Granville Island.
Granville Island: Don't ask me why, but this person covered themselves with loaves of bread and tried to attract the pigeons. Funny enough, the pigeons didn't bite...
Granville Island Brewery: Dan just arrived in the city from New Brunswick, so of course he wanted to check out the Brewery. Just in case you weren't aware of it, people from the Maritime love to drink!
View of the mountains during one of my bike rides. Honestly, how can one ever get bored of seeing the mountains? It's absolutely surreal. To this day it still amazes me to walk around downtown and have the view of the mountains behind the office buildings. Amazing!
Halloween 2007: Chad & Bobby (my roommates). They say they were Native Indians, but let's be honest, they were more like Slutty Native Indians!
Chad The Slutty Native Indian and his Asian Captive...
Oh No!
Wonder Woman, Flight Attendant and Roman Goddess: I honestly put together my costume within 24 hours.
Roman Goddess begging for Wonder Woman not to beat her up...
...only to turn around and beat up the Flight Attendant. Muah ha haa!
Colorado Vs. Vancouver: My first Canucks Game!
As usual I had to have my nachos and beer.
I have to say I was rather disappointed with the size of the beers. They were half the size of the ones at Toronto Games!
Lynn Canyon: The suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon. Capilano Suspension Bridge is the more popular and touristy bridge, however, the one at Lynn Canyon is just the same and FREE! You know me.... Nothing beats FREEEEEE!
A HUGE rock at Lynn Canyon.
A stream at Lynn Canyon.
Grouse Mountain: The Grouse Grind is a trek up the face of the mountain. It isn't a long hike in terms of distance (2.9 km) but it was a long way up 853 m (2,800 ft). They don't call it "Mother Nature's Stairmaster" for no reason!
Yay! An Hour and a half after starting, we finally made it to the top!
Panoramic view of Vancouver from the top of Grouse Mountain. Well worth the treacherous climb up.
Victoria, BC: Parliament building at night.
Whistler, BC: The majority of my time in the past month was spent in Whistler(mountain resort approx. 2 hrs from Vancouver). There are so many things I love about going up there but my favourite is the drive on the Sea To Sky Hwy. I don't think I can ever get bored of driving along the edge of a mountain with the view of the mountains touching the ocean.
View of the sun setting on a drive back from Whistler.
Rose & I in Whistler. This picture cracks me up!
Whistler: 2010 Gold Medal Olympian!
Pemberton, BC: Pemberton is approx. half an hour north of Whistler where my friend Dan lives. I usually stay there when I'm up in Whistler. It's quite picturesque.
This is Steve basting a 25lb turkey for US Thanksgiving. Let me just say that Steve made the best stuffing I have ever tasted. It makes my mouth water just thinking of it now...
Irish Pub in Whistler: Steve had a bunch of friends come visit from Seattle. Marcus took a liking to licking my face...
Result of 7 hours of drinking at the Irish Pub: Joe & Dan eating from a bucket of never-ending turkey.
Pemberton, BC: Another trip out to Whistler/Pemberton.
Joe made marshmallow. Yes, you read correctly. He didn't just buy marshmallow from the store, he made it from scratch! Here is Rose taking a taste of it...
Roxy: Steve's dog.
I love her, she loves me, we're a big happy family...
Suicide Hill: this is the road that takes you from Pemberton to Whistler or vice versa. They don't just call it Suicide Hill for no reason. Just look at those curves!
Whistler: first day of snowboarding!!! The snow was powder fresh and soft. It was absolutely amazing.
Whistler: Walking around Whistler Village.
Pemberton, BC: Impromptu Jam Session. It was the night of a huge snowstorm but the partying didn't stop. Everyone came over, fireplace was crackling, drinks were flowing, guitars & drums were playing and life was great!
This is a classic "Dan" picture where his mouth is curled up like that. Apparently he has to do in order to get the right sound when singing Johnny Cash or Stompin' Tom.
Pemberton, BC: the morning after the huge snowstorm. There must have been more than 50cm of snow! This was the view when we opened the balcony door!
Try to spot Rose's car under all that snow!!! You can barely see her side rear view mirror!
Rose & I trying to clean off the car.
There was so much snow that all the highways were closed and we ended up staying 3 additional days... though no one was disappointed with that!
I have been very fortunate lately where the men around me love to cook. Joe and Dan always cook up the most elaborate meals. Here is a prime example:
After what was supposed to be a 4 day trip ended up being a week, the highways finally opened and we reluctantly went back to the city only to be greeted by the brightest rainbow I have ever seen!
I like to believe that I have an open mind to new experiences. Therefore, when my friend Dan asked if I was interested in going to watch the Steelworkers of Montreal (a folk grass band) perform at a rather shady pub in an even more shady area, I agreed. I was pleasantly surprised at the great night that ensued and let's just say it was quite the "experience."
Honestly, have you ever seen a mic stand that was made of a hockey stick and had a holder for an alcoholic beverage? Brilliant, just ab-so-lute-ly brilliant.
I haven't seen anyone wear overalls since the early 90's!!!!
Here is a guy who wore his "jean" that night. "jean" = one piece suit made completely of jean... I kid you not! There is such a thing that exists...
Paul & Donna's Hawaiian themed wedding reception:
Aidan, my new boyfriend!
Bobby, Dawn and Cayle: Cayle came to visit from Calgary and within 24 hours of meeting him, he forever changed my life with the classic question... "Lien, did you get D in your V last night?" Classic, just classic...
TanPoPo: Vancouver has some of the best sushi and ridiculously cheap too! TanPoPo is my place of choice. I probably go there more than I like to admit. We usually go for late night (after 9:30pm) all you can eat sushi for only $12.95!!!
Sample of our itemized receipt. Yes, thats 200 pieces of sashimi (among other things) that were ordered between 5 people!
Vij's: I love Vij's. It is the best Indian restaurant in the city! Their lamb popsicles are to die for!!!!
Cactus Club Restaurant: Is a chain in Vancouver where the servers are all good looking and you can blame/thank my roommate Chad for that as he is the manager there. We like going there because we get VIP treatment and rightfully so. Bobby, Chad and myself having one of our last family dinners.
View of the snow covered mountains from my apartment balcony.
Holiday 2008: Our apartment.
The start of my week long buzz. Here we are putting together a gingerbread house (for our Xmas party) while drinking.
Gingerbread House 2008: We each decorated one gingerbread to represent ourselves and then made one of the other person. The ones in the front are both me. The left one was made by Bobby and the right one was made by me.
World's Largest Gingerbread House @ the Hyatt.
Chad being dirty.
Xmas Party @ the apartment
Yes, thats a beer bong alright. I admit, I have been living the life of a 22 year old Frat boy...
After my turn at the beer bong. Let's just say I'm not very good at it...
The morning after the party...
Xmas Morning 2007: How appropriate...Light snow on xmas morning.
Mimosas & gifts, what more can one ask for?
Chad & his stocking stuffers...
Me with my stocking stuffers...
One of my stocking stuffer gifts to the boys. Of course, brilliantly wrapped in tampax boxes!
One final family portrait. Merry Xmas!
Xmas Dinner @ Jessica & Sean's House: Ukrainian style Xmas dinner. I never had Ukrainian food before and after how delicious the dinner was, it will certainly not be my last time!
That concludes my 2007 year. It certainly has been memorable. I like to say that 2007 was a year of change and I believe 2008 will be the defining year. Ok, the Crazian is off to Amsterdam! Cheers to a great Holiday and see you all in the year 2008!
.JPG)