Monday May 24, 2010

All across Canada people were celebrating Victoria Day (Queen Victoria’s birthday) with parades, parties, fireworks, etc. The normal things people do on national holidays. So Callie and I decided to celebrate as well seeing as we had the day off.
We began our celebration by sleeping in until 9:30 AM or so. It was simply divine! Around 11 we headed to the bus stop and arrived in Chinatown at approximately 12-ish. We weren’t hungry at the time, so we began our search for cheap Canada merchandise. It turned out to be relatively easy and we felt satisfied with our finds. We also stopped at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park, a real Chinese garden even with rocks imported from China! It was pretty, but small.
After walking around for a few hours in the tourist part of Chinatown, we somehow ended up in the residential section where the only things being sold were food items such as veggies, dead fish, and lizards on sticks. Needless to say, the smell was grotesque and we hastened to leave this part of town.
Then we ended up on Hastings Street, the bad part of Chinatown. We quickly turned around and followed our noses back to the markets and eventually found ourselves back in the touristy section.
Even after the gag-reflex inducing sights and smells at the Chinese markets, our stomachs began to complain of hunger. So we stopped at a Chinese bakery and purchased a Mango Cream Roll. We hurried to a small coffee shop where we had stopped earlier so we could consume this hopefully delicious food item.
The first bite was interesting and sent our taste buds for a loop. However, all the following bites were eaten with pleasure and with minimal talking.
We began our trek home with nothing out of norm occurring. We were, of course, the minority on all transit vehicles. But even this is losing its weirdness and slowly become natural for us, or so it feels.
Upon our arrival at PLBC, we simply chilled. We hung out for a while and then headed out to find our supper. We had our hearts (and stomachs) set on Chinese, but the closest place was closed. We were forced to buy toasted subs that simply did not meet our standards.
The rest of the evening was relaxed and ended with a small, unplanned yet wonderful time of worship.