Happy 4th year to me !! :)

Hello Folks !!

Today, September 11th 2011, I’m celebrating the day I arrived in Quebec City four years ago (time flies so fast !!).  It is the perfect occasion to talk about the travel across Canada we did the 2 last weeks of August. One word to qualify it : A M A Z I N G !!! I was so exited and I believe everyone close to me was tired to hear me talking about it (hihihi ! Sorry guys!!). But before I give you more details about this thrilling adventure (one last time!), let’s review the last weeks in term of activities, discoveries and journeys.

As I am living close to the city of Burnaby (actually at the boundary with Vancouver), I started to get more interested in the natural beauty of this city. The Burnaby Lake Regional nature park is well known for birdwatching (Trust me I am not really good at it !! hihihi), and the 11 km trail around the lake certainly benefits to the heart. As a matter of fact, I go jogging around the awesome Burnaby Lake each week since a while now, and I really like to breath the fresh air in the park around the lake, at least one time a week.

Besides the Burnaby lake, I have been to Burnaby mountain (where the Simon Fraser University is located). It’s a really easy hike  and the view is really beautiful from there. Even if it is a little bit complicated to find the “trail” up to the mountain through the urban jungle, the area really worth the visit as you can see on the pictures.

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I took part in many festival and celebration across the city: the Car free day, the Francophone Festival (as a volunteer), la Fête de la musique, The Jazz festival, the Scandinavian Festival (almost !!). Finally, I went with Wazy to Squamish for a week-end. We did not hiked the Chief (I had already done it) but just enjoyed the (really small) city !! And finally, we hiked the majestic Grouse Mountain: this is it we are officially Vancouverite !!

As promised, I’m finishing my post by talking about our 2 weeks bus trip across Canada. Basically, we visited at least one town in each province for the West to the East. As a matter of fact, we have learned that Canada is a really vast country and we needed for sure more than 2 weeks to visit every single attraction we wanted to see.

We traveled  from Vancouver to Moncton ( Not enough time to make it to Halifax): 7 days in the bus (Stops in Jasper, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Niagara Falls), 3 days in Montreal, 1 day in Quebec , 1 day in the train from Montreal to Moncton (due to the hurricane Irene), 8 hours to fly back to Vancouver. Along the way, we have witnessed the diversity of scenery that make this country so unique and beautiful.

The following video is a summary of the trip.

Enjoy the End of the summer and stay tune for more posts

Tetia

Happy Victoria Day!

A perfect day to have a deserved rest and to update my blog.

Speaking of Victoria Day, it’s a good occasion to relate the afternoon I spent in Victoria (Vancouver Island) last month during Alexandra’s visit.

First of all, we arrived just in time for the departure at Tsawwassen Bay after running against the clock!  The ferry trip passed smoothly even though we almost lost patience in the line-up to buy breakfast .

After about an hour and half and a few extra kilometers by car, we arrived in Victoria.

That day the sun had decided to play hide and seek with the clouds, but the weather did not prevented us from making great discoveries.

Several elements give this city a unique character: It’s a very nice town with an architecture similar to Old Quebec, the Parliament of Victoria is definitely one of the most beautiful (and larger) that I had the opportunity to see, the world’s smallest shopping Street?(Alex’s must-see), Victoria’s Chinatown which is small and but recognized as the oldest in Canada.

We definitely had a beautiful time even if we felt the fatigue from the previous three days of camping. We didn’t had the opportunity to visit any gardens, parks and museums. I will probably return this summer for a more detailed visit of Victoria, Nanaimo and Tofino (another must-do in BC).

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Stanley Park, oh Stanley Park …!

Yes I did! The complete tour of the Stanley Park in 2 hours, and my feet can certainly testify it! I’ve been several times at the Stanley Park, also at English bay, at the third beach but it was the first time I did the entire loop.

The seawall offers a breathtaking view of downtown Vancouver, Golden Lion Gates, North Vancouver, and the Mountains. Starting from the Vancouver Rowing Club to English Bay, it’s a distance of about 9.6 km. I must confess: it’s definitively something to do at least once when you are in Vancouver. Aside from the scenery, the beautiful view, taking this walk certainly helps clear your mind while breathing the sea air and it’s the perfect excuse for rewarding yourself afterwards with some sushi from Yamato on Davie between Granville and Seymour.

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Ça y est je l’ai fait… Le tour complet du Stanley Park en 2 heures. Eh oui… Ce ne sont pas mes pieds qui vous diront le contraire ! Mais qu’elle belle promenade par cette journée ensoleillée que Dame nature à bien voulu nous donner durant cette fin de semaine.

J’ai déjà été plusieurs fois au Stanley Park, également à English Bay, à la troisième plage mais c’était la première fois que je faisais le tour du Stanley d’un trait.

Le chemin du bord de mer vous offre une vue imprénable sur d’une part le centre-ville de Vancouver, le Lion Gate Bridge, North Vancouver, les montagnes. En partant du Vancouver Rowing club jusqu’à English Bay, en passant en dessous du Lions Gate Bridge, c’est une distance d’environ 9,6 Km que vous êtes invités à parcourir…Je dois avouer que c’est une expérience à réaliser au moins une fois en étant à Vancouver. Mise à  part le paysage, la belle vue, il n’y a rien de tel pour se remettre les idées claires en respirant l’air marin, surtout lorsque vous vous récompensez par la suite par des sushis de Yamato Sushi sur Davie Street entre Granville et Seymour.

Bonjour, Hello, 你好 !

Il y a maintement près de 4 mois depuis mon dernier post et je crois qu’il est temps de revenir aux bonnes vielles habitudes.

Quatre mois c’est long et il s’en est passé pas mal de choses, certaines spéciales et certaines faisant partie de la routine de chaque habitant de Vancouver. Parlant de choses spéciales j’ai visité l’exposition Body Worlds au Telus Science World. C’était une activité assez fascinante : voir l’intérieur du corps humain dans toutes ses composantes et l’influence qu’ont les mauvaises habitudes de vie (cigarettes, alcool, alimentation non équilibrée…) sur celui-ci. Aussi, la traditionnelle ballade dans le Gastown (qui rappelle tellement le vieux Québec après les portes de St Jean). Sans oublier la messe de Noel à la Holy Rosary Cathedral. Eh oui… Il s’en est passé des choses !

Mais avant toute reprise, il est bon de faire un bilan de ma première année de bloggeuse:

Ce blog était au départ destiné à ma famille pour qu’ils aient une idée de ce que fait leur fille sur la côte Ouest du Canada. Dans ce pays far far away, que j’ai découvert pour la première fois à travers l’épisode Les Dalton dans le blizzard, de la bande dessinée Lucky Luke, qui dépend avec humour la forte personnalité des canadiens (:)). Oui, disais-je, le blog avait pour objectif de tenir ma famille au parfum des découvertes que je faisais ici, et je me suis rapidement rendue compte que plusieurs personnes m’apportait de plus en plus leur soutien (Merci à vous tous ! Surtout Toi qui lit présentement ces lignes !).

Je reviens donc pour une nouvelle année pleine de projets de rencontres et de découvertes que j’ai hâte de partager ! Cette année, on ne se limitera pas uniquement à Vancouver mais on ira également explorer les alentours… Eh oui ! J’ai décidé de reprendre mon sac à dos et de sillonner la province (autant que possible) et d’être les yeux et les oreilles des habitants de mon Yopohué Natal (no offense aux gens de Nagadoukou ! hihihi). Joignant l’acte à la parole, mon prochain post est à propos de la belle ballade de 9,6 Km que j’ai faite hier .

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It has been almost 4 months since my last post and I think it’s time to start writing again.

A lot of things have happened during this period, some of them more special than the others. Speaking of special things, I visited the Body Worlds exhibit at TELUS Science World. It was an interesting experience: to be able to see inside the human body in all its components and the influence of bad habits on it. I also re-visited the traditional Gastown (which reminds me Le Vieux Québec right after St. Jean’s Doors), and also attended the Christmas Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

But before we start this year, it’s good to have a quick look in the rear view mirror.

This blog was originally created for my family, to give them an idea of what their daughter was doing in Vancouver and I quickly realized that many people brought me more and more support and were interested about (Thank you all! Specially to You for reading these lines!).

So I’m back for another year full of projects that I cannot wait to share! This year, I will try not to be only limited in Vancouver but to explore the surroundings … Yep! I decided to take my backpack and travel around the province (as much as possible) and be the eyes and ears of the people from my Hometown (Yopohué). Shakespeare said “Suit the action to the word, the word to action” so my next post is about the beautiful walk of 9.6 Km I did yesterday .

Lots of laughs !!

The Vancouver comedyFest was 4 weeks ago. I attended this event as a journalist of  The Source. I was very suprised about the quality of the performances as well as the audience. I have seen Neil Hamburger and Tom Green during the show. In fact, I thought this kind of event would have brought people with a certain age, around 40 to 50 years old, but many young people were there too. This confirmed what the artistic director of the Comedy Fest Will Davis, told me during the interview for my article about the ComedyFest.

On one hand, Neil Hamburger’s humour was gross and vulgar. His style is based on question/answer jokes most of the time about celebrities and I didn’t understand why he was carrying three glasses of water on his hand during the show without using them !! but above all I didn’t like the sound he was making while clearing his throat, he didn’t do it once but each 2 min !!! I was very open-minded but during his part I was hoping impatiently the end  !!

On the other hand, I loved Tom Green’s performance. Through his own life experiences, he talked about many subjects: our society, our youth, our technology-based life and he was so funny ! For sure he got a gift !! watch his opinion about facebook here. I surely had a good time watching this show !!! and I look forward to attend more events like this one and discover other humour styles.

Silence ! I am listening to stones’ songs !!

I finally went to Van Dusen Garden yesterday with Alexandra. For the first time I saw how a garden can be valorised by sculptures. There was such a beautiful harmony between plants and stones. The Zimsculpt exhibition was featured by Zimbabwean sculptors.

Visiting the garden with this exhibition was like we were reading a poetry written in two differents languages, both of them talking to each other and trying to express to the visitor the beauty of the nature and human ingeniosity. I would have like to write many things about this exhibition but I learned with this visit that sometimes words are not necessary.

Enjoy the pictures !

UBC’s Rose Garden

After seven months in Vancouver it was time (during the last sunny week-end, sniff !) for a real visit of UBC, in order to learn more about this university which makes vancouver so proud. I have been there a couple of times and every times one single word comes to my mouth:  awesome !

I was really impressed by the buildings, the atmosphere, the landscaping. Also, from what I have seen, many monuments remind to the visitor the importance of the First Nations’ history along the years like totems and the anthropology museum. I think that to study there, enjoy this atmosphere (and the beach !!!)  is a huge opportunity for the students, which also costs a lot !
I took time to visit the rose garden. There, I saw differents types, colors and shapes of roses, like I have never seen.

You don’t need to know many things about gardening (like me !! ) before you fall in love with UBC’s rose garden. I really appreciated this visit because this place reminded me the importance of being fascinated by huge things like sea waves and also by small things like a bee taking a flower’s pollen. I realised that I was witnessing an important moment of the plants life cycle, the natural pollination (my botanical classes came suddenly in my mind !). For sure, this moment was priceless !

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I don’t want to stop here my new passion for gardens (lol !), so I plan to visit very soon the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, known as the Garden of Ease (humm!!), and also the Queen Elizabeth Park and the VanDusen Botanical Garden with its stone sculptures, specially the Zimsculpt.

 

Wreck Beach Vancouver !! Yeh Baby !!

I had a wonderful day yesterday at Wreck beach !! I had never seen a place like this ! It was like the beach was separated from the rest of the city and had his own spirit, his own rules !! Of course it’s a special place: you have to climb down around 400 steps to get there.

We spent all the day, lying on the sand, enjoying the sunshine, listening music !  As I said, very special place with very special peoples: at Wreck Beach you can count by your fingers people who are not naked (we were in this group lol !) !!! There, the time flies differently, your mind doesn’t think anymore, you forget everything and you just enjoy THE moment !!  And of course if you are in good company it’s magic !

Today, we will try English Bay !!! Yeh Baby !!!

The Surey Fusion Festival 2010

After a nice day at the beach on Saturday, Sunday was devoted to the celebration of multiculturalism through music, food, objects. More than 25 pavilions allowed to discover the richness of cultural communities of Surey. The festival was very well organised : people moved without stress, they took advantage of the attractions without running from one to another. I’ve been really impressed by this festival! Moreover, I met very interesting people in joy and good humor.

 

I will attend the Vancouver Turquish Festival next week on July 24 next, which will be the subject of my next article in the source.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Places like the Capilano Park don’t need many words for being described… just wonderful !

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I visited the Capilano Bridge a couple of weeks ago with my English tutor, her husband and Helen’s parents, who had came to visit her. It was such a beautiful day  ! Trees almost as old as Western civilization on this continent and the suspension bridge about 130 meters up into the air, everything was really well located in this park. I really enjoyed this park which really contributes to make Vancouver “the best place on earth”.

During our visit we noticed the presence of channels of radio and television on the site. On returning home, we realized the tragedy that had occurred the night before: a student had fallen from a high viewpoint, which was supposedly “closed for repairs” during our visit.