Tag: Canada

The Vancouver Aquarium — Torn Between the Good and the Bad

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If you live in Vancouver, and have had friends or family visit from some far away land, you will probably bring them around town. Seeing as how we do not have a zoo (at least not close by anyway), nor is Playland open 365 days of the year, the Aquarium is a top pick for many to show off as a visitor attraction. It is perfect for even when the weather looks gloomy, which as a Vancouverite, I can safely say that makes up around 80% of our year.

Over the summer, my friend Monica and I decided to take our sisters to the Vancouver Aquarium, calling it our ‘sister date’. Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to visit the aquarium.

I have not been for quite a long time, so I was pretty excited! We arrived at around 11:30am, hoping to make the most of our day there. The Aquarium usually closes at 6PM during the summer, and their hours of operation are even shorter during winter. If you thought that you would be bored walking around, you have another think coming. We started off with a 4-D experience adventure, watching animals in their natural habitat. I get pretty freaked out at these 4-D things because I am terrified that something will grab me. Thankfully, there was no grabbing. There was, however, things poking my back, me being sprayed at with water, something tickling my leg and other interesting effects. Monica’s sister gave a shrill scream at one point, then declared that she was not scared, only to scream again a scene or two later.

Checking the aquarium’s schedule after the 4-D film, we realized that they had shows lined up for every time slot available (an example can be found on their website here). For some shows, they overlapped, so one would have to choose between watching the dolphins, or watching the sea otters. We ended up watching a dolphin show, an introduction to seals, a talk on the new penguins that came to town and the beluga show. In between running to the various locations for these shows, we had lunch. Food was really overpriced, but you would expect that. Not that it stop us from complaining.

For those of you who have noticed, some Canadian restaurants have a symbol beside some of their menu items. We noticed it at the aquarium’s cafe.This one to be exact:

I have seen this symbol loitering around quite a few menus around Vancouver, and it turns out that it refers to the Ocean Wise  program started by the Vancouver Aquarium. It helps ensure that the item on the menu is a good choice for keeping the ocean ecosystem in tack, and for supply to remain abundant for future generations. So keep a lookout for the Ocean Wise sign next time you visit a restaurant!

In all, the aquarium was great fun, albeit tiring looking after our sisters. But to be honest, my sister is 14 so I guess I am referring to Monica’s sister. However, it’s hard to get annoyed because she is adorable! I guess it was a successful ‘sister date’!

Playing in the Kid’s Zone 😛

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So until this point, I have only spoken of the Aquarium in a positive light. Of course, every cloud has a silver lining.

During the trip, Monica brought up the questionable idea of whether the aquarium is actually harming the animals, forcing them to be mere attractions in a confined habitat. I was actually quite curious too. That led to a bit of researching after I got home. 

Suspicious pieces of facts that I found:
– their beluga whales dying within ten years after being born or caught (x)(x)
– how the aquarium acquires their marine animals (x)

There was more information from other sites, but they only provided small bits and pieces of information. The two above stood out most to me.

So it turns out that they do not only keep wounded animals, or those who cannot survive in the wild due to certain circumstances. There are cases in which they actively tried to buy sea animals for display. They also frequently try to expand further into areas of Stanley Park, making the aquarium bigger. Of course, these plans for expansion are always met with protests and discontent from various animal rights groups, but Vancouverites are generally pretty optimistic towards the expansion of their aquarium.

I do not know where I stand. I know that some of the animals were rescued, as told by the guides from several of the animal shows we saw, but how about the rest? The aquarium is no doubt one of Vancouver’s most profitable tourist attractions, so wanting more is no doubt on their minds. At the same time, the aquarium is also a great place for kids and other visitors to learn about animal conservation, as well as the importance of keeping the oceans clean. The Vancouver Aquarium also has, as previously introduced, the Ocean Wise program set up, plus helps organize and encourage shoreline cleanups around the city.

Sorry if this post is really torn between the good and the bad, but I really cannot decide. So what do you think? Hope I gave you something to think about the next time you visit the Vancouver Aquarium!

-Karen

My Journey to America’s Final Frontier

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Yes, you would be right if you thought I meant Alaska. Amazing how Russia sold 586,412 square miles of land for only 2 cents an acre! But then again, Russia probably thought they were getting a good deal for this vast wasteland. Little did they know oil and natural gas would be found there.

My family and I went on a cruise to Alaska. My dad loves cruises, so for our family vacation this year we decided to go to Alaska. Cruises to Alaska departs from Vancouver, which is perfect for us. It also is one of the longer cruises, as it lasts for 8 days, 7 nights. Most of the cruises we went on in Asia lasted a maximum of 5 days since all the Asian countries were so close together.

I must say, I enjoy cruises here a lot more than I did in Asia. Everyone is more polite (and I am mostly referring to the passengers on it), and the vibe is just better.

We chose to go on the Celebrity Century. And by we, I mean my dad, since he plans all the family vacations. I liked the ship enough, but nothing made it stand out particularly from other cruise ships.

A view of the Vancouver Skyline from our cruise ship

We left on Sunday, the 24th of June. When we boarded, they told us our rooms were not ready yet. So everyone headed to the Islands Cafe for brunch. I do not know how many times I visited the Islands Cafe during the whole cruise, since it was the food joint that was opened latest and was a buffet area. For dinners, there was a more formal venue– The Grand Restaurant. Every family had their own waiters and assistant waiters, and ours came from Singapore and Croatia respectively. I always find it really interesting how the crew on a cruise ship always came from all corners of the world. In my cruise to Vietnam several years ago, the staff/crew had little flags of their home country right next to their name on their name tags. It never failed to amaze me how many different flags I saw.

Aboard the ship, there were performances at night. I particularly liked the night when they did a show they called “A Touch of Broadway”. Everything was so colourful! I also enjoyed Jay Mattioli’s magic performances. He incorporated a lot of dancing and jokes, keeping the audience entertained throughout his whole performance!

A Touch of Broadway

Jay doing his thing

They also had a theatre, playing different movies everyday. I was so happy they showed War Horse (obsessed with Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch), the latest Mission Impossible (Jeremy Renner!) and then In Time (Cillian Murphy!) during my cruise. I really liked War Horse (though I have seen it before), and thought that Mission Impossible and In time was okay, but it was like a never-ending fangirling theatre. Well, for me anyway.

My dad alone in the fangirl theatre 😛

For this cruise to Alaska, we stopped at three ports. At one port, Juneau, I was surprised they had a little tribute to their beloved governor. And by tribute, I mean they make fun of her. 😛

For souvenirs, I really did not know what to bring back to my friends. I thought their dream catchers were pretty cool, until I turned the tag around and saw that it was proudly made in British Columbia. Now why would I go all the way to Alaska to bring back something I could have gotten at home? Plus, are not most of the people who visit these souvenir shops from B.C. anyway? Hmm. Anyway, I ended up getting a couple of ulu knives. Nothing says I had a good trip than bringing back knives for my friends.

Along the way, our ship also steered close to some glaciers so that everyone could take pictures and whatnot. I thought it was really beautiful how the glaciers actually looked blue like they do in paintings. It was also a bit traumatizing when you hear the ships’ pick clawing its way through the ice drifts in order to get closer to the glacier. The whirring and scraping noise made me think of the Titanic again and again. However, all turned out well and we did not end up having to evacuate the ship.

Nearing the glaciers. Here I was wearing flip flops and trying not to let the cold get to me.

Yeah, I know it is summer and we chose to go to icy mountains. Not my idea of a summer event, but hey, it was fun! However, when going out on the deck to take pictures of the glaciers and snow capped mountains, I had to wipe my eyes quite several times. Not because I was being dramatic and emotions were overwhelming, but because the winds were so cold it actually hurt. I was also the fool who decided to wear sandals out on the deck (being too lazy to go back to my cabin to change). Ahh, summer.

So overall, it was a very relaxing trip. I finally felt I could unwind after my hectic first year at university. I also gained quite a bit of weight seeing as how I was eating five (or more) meals a day, all being all-you-can-eats. Here you can have some pictures of my food aboard the ship:


I will now stop with the food spam.

So here are my tips for cruises!
– learn the ships’ layout after you get on. Take your time discovering where the restaurants are, where their lounges are, etc. It will help when you read your ships’ daily itinerary, or else you will panic and run around looking for their “Fiesta Deck”. Well, maybe not. You would probably ask a staff, but it is so much easier knowing your surroundings.
– always book your dinner reservations (they usually ask you during registration for your cruise). If you think you will figure it out after you get on the ship, good luck. I saw this huge line of people trying to do their booking after the ship set sail and they did not look happy.
– when you get your ships’ activity schedule of the day, look through it and circle things you want to attend then plan out when you will eat and how your day will look. Otherwise, you end up missing a show that you really wanted to watch, or a class that you intended to try out!
– always get off when you arrive at a port. It feels good to stand on solid ground after days of being on swaying ground. It took me several days after I came back home to adjust. I still felt like the floor was moving below me.
– watch your food intake. Haha, just kidding. It is a cruise. The chocolate fountains and dessert buffets are irresistible.
– pack formal wear along with your casual wear. And if you want, throw in a little smart casual in there too. Some restaurants and times of the day call for different attire. They may even not let you in to a restaurant if you are not in the proper attire.
– if you know you will get sea sick, get pills or those motion sickness arm bands ahead of time. You do not want to feel horrible during your amazing trip. I was seasick for the first two days until I gave in and bought pills. It sucked missing their awesome breakfasts during those days.
-go out on the deck. Enjoy the view. When else can you catch a glimpse of nothing but sea, stretching out to as far as the eye can see! It is as if nothing else exists and it is just you and the body of water you are on. The sunsets are also amazing. It is undisturbed and unobstructed by buildings one usually finds in the city.

Seriously, go out and enjoy the deck!

So that is all from me today! This post definitely came late, but I wanted to document my trip all the same!
Until next time!

-Karen

I really wish it snowed during Christmas instead..

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So if you are a Vancouverite, you have probably recently had to trudge through the snow like me. I wish it snowed back in December! I wonder if I have actually ever had a white Christmas…for all I know, I may have, but was to young to remember!

When I was younger, I loved the snow! And since coming back to Canada, I have not really seen snow that lasted for what was probably more than one day. For the past two years Vancouver was not high on the snow factor. I heard that the year before I came back, there was a huge snowstorm…kind of wish I was there to see it! But at the same time, the chilling winds that I am experience now is quite enough for me to retract that. It actually makes my eyes tear up from the cold when I walk between classes…it also does not help that my classes are a kilometre away from each other. I am truly amazed when I hitch my morning car rides from my dad and see bikers biking on the highway-like road towards UBC. *applause* Seriously!

So while I was going home yesterday, I was rushing to get back into the warm confines of my room and was walking pretty fast once I got off the bus. However, I saw something in the snow that made me smile: doggie paw prints! I actually gave a chuckle…so then I decided to take out my phone and take a picture of it. It really must have had some effect on me because I took off my mittens and let my hands endure the cold! I really wanted to capture the tracks. So I kept my eyes peeled at I walked the rest of the way home. Then I saw some bird tracks! These were adorable because there were little drag marks! I had no idea why that was so, but my mom told me it was cause the birds were short and their bellies dragged on the grounds as they walked through the snow. I do not know whether I should believe her or not because she tends to make up stuff to sound smart.

Paw prints everywhere 🙂 So cute!

Bird tracks with little drag marks!

I caught other interesting photos on my iPhone the rest of the way and at one point I found some fresh, untouched snow. I couldn’t resist so I left my own prints in the snow and took a picture of that too. Yeah, I know it is horrible to mess up the unmarked snow, especially when it was not yours to walk all over…but I was jealous of birds and dogs preserving their prints in the now! =P Then I came across another patch of clean snow so I wrote my name in it. Big mistake though because my fingers were cold to begin with. Digging them into the snow did not help. My fingers were so cold and went by the time I was done that my iPhone could not sense my fingers on the screen. =.=

My boot prints 🙂

Bad idea...

But anyway, I think it was a nice experience and when I finally got home, it got me thinking. I realized that although at times it may seem like things suck, but there is always something there to lift your mood–as long as you look for it and let it! So get out there and keep looking! Or if you have already found it, then relish in it! 🙂

-Karen

 

 

 

 

Yup, it was a pretty Amazing Race!

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…considering how we won!

Hey there!

Yeah I know, “Karen?! Racing? Physical activity? What?!” But it was seriously very fun!

On Monday, my friend Josh organized an Amazing Race around Vancouver for a group of our friends! I must say, it was very successful, seeing as how 7 teams competed against one another!

~The Amazing Race~

Teams were as follows:

– Paul and Jody, “the White Boys” (blue)
– Connie and Karen, “thebomb.com” (purple)
– Wendell and Kody, “ex-convicts” (red)
– Chris T and Vanessa, “The Amazing Face” (yellow)
– Kevin and Mimi (silver)
– Michael and Jason, “PMS: Perpetual Motion Squad” (white)
– David and Eric, “Men’s Generation” (black + white)

thebomb.com!

So Connie and I were Thebomb.com! A.k.a. the purple team! I did expect quite a bit of physical activity, but I did not expect my muscles to be this sore the day after! It hurts to move and the fact that I’m leaving on Friday and thus am doing a lot of preparations these few days (for university!) does not really help the problem!

Anyway, it was a wonderful day and here is a quick summary of it before I forget the details myself! The race took us around the City of Vancouver, truly tested our sense of direction around the city and put Vancouver’s public transit to the test! We were also not allowed to use our smart phones and search stuff up on the internet.

Don’t be jealous of my microsoft paint skills

Meet-up for the event started at 9:30 a.m, but Josh actually expected people to be late, so the actual starting time was at 10. Everyone gathered at the bottom of Queen Elizabeth Park and after reading our information packages, we were soon ready to start. By the way, besides the challenges themselves, we were also given a list of photos that we could take during the race that will help our final score Yay for scavenger hunts!

The first challenge was to fill out a sheet, ranking activities from the least amount of people performing a certain activity from another. It took a while for Connie and I to finish and after doing so, we were directed to go up QE Park towards the water fountain at the top! Honestly, running up the hill to the top made me feel like dying seeing as how I barely did any exercise for quite a while now! Several groups were in front of us, namely yellow, red and white (I think) and at the top, William was waiting for us with a Detour sheet. We had a choice of taking a picture with a McDonald’s employee, going into a store and asking for condoms or going to the liquor store and finding out where a wine (Oyster Bay Pinot Noir, I believe) was made! We opted to do the McDonald’s one and a lady hesitantly came over and took a photo with us.

After obtaining the photo, we ran towards the Sir Charles Tupper Secondary (our school! Or rather, former school) oval, where Monica was waiting for us to give us the next challenge. It was to find a penny hidden somewhere in the oval. Honestly, this was the most time consuming and my least favourite part of the race! It almost took us an hour or so to find the penny as only one team member was allowed to do the searching (Roadblock!)! However, we were the third group to find our penny and we had to solve a coded message, telling us where the next checkpoint was. This involved the periodic table, which was provided to us somewhere within our package, which led us to the Science World gazebo!

We took the bus down to Science World near Main and Terminal and we found the gazebo. We soon realized that the challenge was to eat one of the items that was laid out for us. Among the selection, there were salsa packets, a can of Vienna sausages, a mango, caramel rice cakes, a package of instant noodles, an apple and a can of sprite. The last two were taken by the two teams that were ahead of us and so we chose to eat the rice cakes. We managed to get it all down after much choking and gasping for air, and then was told that the next stop was a pit stop at Vancouver City Center, the Canada line station! When we got there, we had our times recorded. We were 14 minutes behind the first group that arrived (white team). When all the teams arrived (after almost an hour, probably due to the penny challenge), we headed off to Pacific Center’s food court for lunch!

Oddly enough, after we all sat down with our food, we realized that each team got the same food within their groups! Connie and I had sandwiches, Michael and Jason had New York Fries, Wendell and Kody had hot dogs, Chris and Vanessa has chinese food, Mimi and Kevin had home packed lunches, David and Eric did not eat and I think we saw Jody and Paul at another table both holding Orange Julius cups. Sorry for listing that out, but it was so peculiar that I wanted it recorded somewhere! =)

We were then released in the order we came in, but instead of making the last team wait and hour or so after the first group left, we were released in intervals of 2 minutes in the same order. Connie and I were the third team off and we were given another Detour sheet. We had the choice of either going to the Apple store and taking a picture of ourselves on Photo Booth and then sending it to Josh, or go to H&M and try on clothing. We chose the Apple store one and we were quickly done. Josh told us our next stop was at the Vancouver Central Library. We ran there to see William already instructing Kody and Michael what to do. Apparently, we had to look for a book on Vancouver’s history and then go photocopy a page from it and take it back to him. Only one member was allowed to do this, as it was a Roadblock. I ran into the library, inquiring where the history books were. After finding out they were on the 6th floor, I had to find a photocopier. Kody could not find one for a while so in the end, Michael and I exited the library before he did.

On Photo Booth!

William then told us our next stop was Scotiabank Theater. Connie and I originally wanted to bus there, but we realized how close it was and thus we just ran/walked there. Michael and Jason (white team) got there before us and we all had to do a fill-in-the-blank sheet on either Natalie Portman or Mila Kunis. Connie was really good at the Natalie Portman trivia questions but we could not finish all the blanks. So we ran into the theater where we met Geoffrey, a Natalie Portman expert or something! He helped us with the rest of the questions. After completing the sheet, the letters came together and pointed us towards the Vancouver Art Gallery. Oh and before I forget to mention, we have been taking loads of photos during the way.

At the Art Gallery, despite taking off before the white team, they caught up and we were given the challenge of playing charades. Connie acted out a series of well performed actions and within a minute or so, I guessed “Obama” and we were clear! We then had to head towards Robson Square to find William. However, this is where a problem took place. We got there before William and thus we had to wait for him to arrive. We used the time to take some photos to add to our points. When he finally got there, he gave us a sheet of paper. On it was a word written in Russian (oh Josh…) and we had to find out what it meant. Connie and I ran upstairs to the Art Gallery information desk and luckily enough, we found an employee there who knew Russian! The other groups, as we were told, all ended up getting stuck at this point. It took about half an hour before William practically gave them the answer and they had to dart off all at once.

After realizing the word was “watermelon” in Russian, William directed us back to Josh at the Art Gallery. We had to down a can of soda water each. Originally, he was going to make us take a shot of Vodka, but that was illegal. It tasted disgusting. But after we were done, we were told to go to the Olympic Cauldron. We took the Skytrain to Waterfront station and we ran towards the symbolic pillars left behind by the Vancouver Olympics! We found ourselves once again ahead of the leaders. Monica arrived in place of William, telling Connie and I we had to find out who built and how much the Gastown Steam Clock weighed. Because she was not supposed to be the person giving us the clue, she failed to give us all the info we needed as she did not have all of it. So we ended up messing up this challenge, but was given an okay in the end because it was not ultimately our fault.

Our next stop was at Vancouver City Hall. We Skytrained there, soon to find Chris and Vanessa (yellow team) hot on our heels. Here we had to answer questions. Each question wrong meant we had to just sit and wait for 2 minutes. We had to wait a total of 6 minutes before we could head off to our final destination. The yellow team had to wait one minute or so more than us. Ultimately, we ended up taking the same Skytrain to the finish line! Talk about dramatic! So as the doors opened at Waterfront once again, Connie and I raced to get out of the station before Chris and Vanessa. Honestly, they were really fast, both being athletes and whatnot. Connie and I? Not so much (though I suck way more than Connie when it comes to physical stuff).

Despite getting to the location of the finish line, we were not told where it actually was. After a good 10-15 minutes of blindly looking around for Josh, we ran out of places to look. We both decided to run to the roof, only to find that we were the third/fourth (cannot remember which one) team there. The Yellow Team ran there before us and I think the Silver team got there before us. The Red team was also there but they were given a penalty of an hour due to accidentally skipping a challenge.  However, we were allowed to take 6 minutes off our total time due to the mishap at the Olympic Cauldron. But there was still the points that came from the photos. Thus, we had to wait til everyone arrived.

The results came and if this is not climatic, I do not know what is. The names were read out one by one, from bottom to first place. Connie and I expected probably somewhere in the top three (fingers crossed!). When the third name came and it was not us, we were sure we were number two. But unexpectedly, we won! WE WON!! The difference between second and first places was only a minute! The prize was originally $100 (which came from the $10 entrance fee we had to pay to play) split between the winners, but we ended up splitting it a different way so that second and third place would also get a prize, with some money left over overall for a pizza party or something on a later date!

So there was the amazing day, where I realized I knew a lot more about and around Vancouver than I though, how Connie and I make a great team, how wonderful Josh was at planning stuff, how competitive I was and what great citizens Vancouverites were considering how we had so much help along the way!

Oh and I tried raw beef sashimi at night at all-you-can eat. =) Another story for another time.

mmmmmmmmm…

Thanks for reading and if you actually read the whole thing, you have made my day!

Karen