In Denial

I typed the following while I was on the plane. Surprise.

So I'll be in Germany very soon. But I feel I won't be "back". Nor will I be "home". I'm just leaving Canada. Despite that undeniable fact I'll post some unfinished stories as if I was still here. Well, “here”. As I am writing this I am in the middle of Canada, 10668 meters above the ground, going at 929 km/h, at a refreshing -57 centigrades. Outside, fortunately, which is well worth mentioning in that huge and not exactly tropical country. I tried to cheer myself up watching some silly Mickey Mouse cartoons but it didn't help. I loved that stuff when I was a little Thomas but it seems nowadays it takes a little more. Or just different things. Poor Donald is just getting rock'n'rolled by that huge turkey girl but apparently my favorite comic style has changed over the years. Anybody seen Paprika btw? Weird manga shit. Recommended. Not necessarily a cheer-up either, though. But at least a good time to send out a big hug to Mathieu et Julie. Apropos, I'm slowly getting tipsy. Again no upgrade to business but again a flight that has been selected for a customer survey. Read as “lucky old bastard's getting lotsa booze”. So far it's been Campari red wine red wine water coffee Baileys. Counting. Lufthansa, there's no better way to get drunk. Well ;).

Other than that I watched two movies on the plane. The first one was quite entertaining, Vicky Christina Barcelona or something (yep). The second one, however, was one of those that make you want to watch no more movies. Ever. Maybe it was just me being awake for about 20 hours after a very short night, maybe it was Richard Gere, maybe it was the lack of a story but it was just a pointless sequence of cheesy wannabe-meaningful/touching/moving/... scenes. I really couldn't believe that it went on and on and on and even the doctor died and that little teenage bitch^Hdaughter would suddenly be superclose to her mother blah blah blah. So cheap. Definitely not recommended. I so wish I could sleep on planes.

P.S.: omfg, I started typing my rant too early. Even the horses at the end. Could it be worse? No. Well, hardly. I actually expected doctor Gere to raise from the dead. At least they spared me THAT.

Toilet Humor. Literally.

Shot yesterday at UVic, CS building. Today, the lower one (which has been there since I got here) was removed. And I thought that one was a joke already... Seems like even geeks have humor. However, it might be the one of a thirteen year old boy.

High-tech urinals at UVIC

Close-up

Lighted Truck Parade

Um, I am a bit speechless about that celebrating Christmas thing with trucks. I'll cut it short: Well, why not? :P

Count those lights

The revolving thing was actually somewhat funny (aka psychedelic)

Oh, and sorry for the poor quality, going there happened kind of spontaneously and my cell phone takes even worse pictures when it's dark.

Mount Wells

So, second attempt today. As Julie was on Mount Finlayson yesterday we hiked up Mount Wells today. We took the bus to Colwood (or was it or Langford? I was sleepy :>) and met with Dominic and Vanessa. It was a comparably short walk up but nature and the view were still amazing.

On the way up

Victoria

Anything but

Yesterday the two “big planned events” didn't really work out. The day started great, another delicious breakfast at Lady Marmalade, that salmon benny was just perfect.

Then our plan was to hike up Mount Finlayson so we went to Langford. When we got off the bus, however, there were clouds that didn't exactly look inviting so we decided to have a drink first and went to the Teas'n'Beans. Pretty nice place, I think I had the first Jasmine tea since I was in Beijing. We stayed for a while and unfortunately the sky didn't really clear up. Well, strictly speaking the sky did clear up, it was really just Mount Finlayson that was in clouds. So we went to another place (called Station House) because we had stayed in the Teas'n'Beans for long enough to get hungry and had some dinner.

After that we went home and wanted to go downtown to watch a show at the Fringe Festival but couldn't convince Maude to join us. Well, I managed to talk her into joining Julie later, at the party, provided that I wait for her to get ready so we could walk downtown together. Well, what can I say, later Maude talked me into staying at home and watching a movie. Fargo it was, and I liked it very much.

Opa!

Last night Christoph, Nancy, Julie and I were at the GreekFest on Elk Lake Drive. The dancing show was quite funny, the PA's harmonic distortion was a bit of a torture, though. On the other hand, that might have also been related to the kind of music. All bitching aside we had a fun evening. Oh, and should you happen to be around, one plate of doughnuts for desert is plenty. Unless you're up for a greasy breakfast next morning, that is.

B.C. coast shaken by powerful earthquake

That was probably my closest strongest earthquake ever and I didn't even feel it.

Hangovers

(At the Mint last night) Me: Well, I actually never have a hangover. Julie: I hate you so much.

Salt Spring Island

Yesterday Christoph and Nancy took me out on a day trip to Salt Spring Island. We weren't able to get on the ferry we wanted to in the morning because the line was too long. There is a well-known market in Ganges where Nancy wanted to buy some stuff and it was really crowded so that's probably why. So we hung out at the harbor and enjoyed the beautiful weather drinking a smoothie. We got on the next ferry and the sail was a short one with beautiful views.

View from the ferry

First we did the important stuff: have lunch. The waitress told us that food would take some time but we were still too optimistic. After a long long time we got some Mexican food. Nancy and me, that is. Unfortunately Christoph wasn't feeling all that good and had some fruit salad. It got worse during the day so we tried to give him as many rests as possible.

Marina

We strolled around the marina for a short while and then went up Mount Maxwell and enjoyed the great view from the top.

View from Mt. Maxwell

Leaving Salt Spring Island

View from the ferry back to Vancouver Island

Blackjack darts

Yesterday I met with Julie downtown. She was uberpunctual because she did not, in any case, want to be late, knowing that she has an appointment with one of those anal Germans, very cute. I was three minutes late, though, The Blue Bridge was up and I had to take a photo (sorry, crappy cell phone camera only).

Johnson Street Bridge

We strolled around for a short while and entered some random place which turned out to be exactly the pub that somebody else had told her about. We had loads of fun talking but it got even better. After some nice food (a salmon burger and some pasta something pesto blah I forgot the name of) and a pitcher of lager we decided to order another pitcher and play darts. I think we started making fun of some people she knows who kinda strictly follow some rules. We tried that for a short while but quickly made up our own rules and got pretty creative about it, from “most triples” (knowing we'd be lucky getting a single one) to “closest to the edge of the board” (that's when you get to hit the bullseye of course) to “highest score right handed without looking” (we're both lefties). Eventually, we settled on playing Blackjack and I guess I don't have to explain the rules. Julie specialized in playing what we called Julie-game, which was constantly scoring 22. So maybe next time we'll play Blackjulie but I think I'm going to have a hard time winning, then. Anyway, we were laughing hard enough to make my abs hurt. Sweetest workout I've had in a while.

Snatch

Yay, watched Snatch last night. Even with subtitles on because Julie can't understand people speaking English with an accent. Lucky me.

Victoria Dragon Boat Festival (that was the plan)

This weekend it was Victoria Dragon Boat Festival. Julie and I started the day pretty easy walking downtown along West Bay Walkway.

View from West Bay Walkway

We had breakfast at Lady Marmalade, delicious! And a cute place, too. After that we walked to Moss Street Market where Julie wanted to buy a few things. She's a pretty decent cook, I'm such a lucky bastard. Then it was time to meet with Christoph and Nancy down at the harbor for what was supposed to be the main event of the day. First we heard a talk about the history of Victoria's Chinatown. Then we met Sarah and went to a nice place I forgot the name of to have something to eat, right at the harbor, great view. The waiter was veeery chatty but still mildly funny and he even persuaded me to not have an Americano but a regular coffee instead—even though those Europeans are quite particular about their coffee he added, but the Americano would simply be too weak at their place. Respect, man. Unfortunately, Sarah was too shy to share some of her German with us even though she lived in Hamburg for quite a while. Fortunately, she told us a way to make that happen. Quoting her: “I haven't had enough drinks, yet.” Well, that can certainly be arranged.

Eventually we walked down to the races. It was so hot I didn't even care about putting my telephoto lens on. The races were rather boring actually and the boats weren't quite what I expected. I guess high expectations can kill just about anything.

Dragon Boats

We strolled around a little more, Sarah had to leave already, I finally got to buy my SIM card (and it was even $10 more expensive than last time I asked, f§$%ers!) and then we went back West Bay Walkway to our place where Julie used what she bought in Chinatown to prepare some great dinner for all of us. Christoph and Nancy decided to go home instead of joining us for open-air cinema so Julie and I went to Beacon Hill Park to watch Princess Bride. We were too far away from the speakers, though, so I could hardly understand anything and I think I even fell asleep a couple of times. I'm such a bore.

Goodbye party

So yesterday it was Laurie's goodbye party. She's probably my roommate-for-the-shortest-time-ever, what a pity. So before the party Laurie, Ben, Estelle and I went to a couple stores to get some barbecue stuff and stock up with booze. Well, actually I bought some beer, a dark lager. Interesting. “Interesting” is a good key word here, although insane is probably an even better match. Six (small!) bottles of of beer for like thir-teen dollars! I couldn't believe it. Those are the times when you really want to hold on to your one single beer for the whole night. Or get a better job. Anyway, the party was very nice, lots of fun people, and some nice herbs over here. Which was kind of unexpected but I won't complain. Oh, one major drawback for that little arachnophobic sissy here: at one time I saw a giant spider seeking shelter under the fridge, yuck! Later, Julie also joined the party and I traded some of my lager for a couple gin and tonics, good deal there. Eventually, we took a cab back home and watched Fight Club. Well, we started watching Fight Club. I doubt we got more than five minutes before falling asleep on the sofa.

Telcos suck

Who do telcos have to suck? They seem to do so all over the world so it might even be some sort of a natural constant. I thought the German ones are the biggest pile of stinking crap in the whole wide world. Hah, even worse in Canada. For example, there are no short term contracts (talking about one of the bigger providers here). That is not really surprising and it would be ok if there were contracts without a monthly fee. Not in Canada of course. So the only “reasonable” option left when you're only here for a few months is pay as you go. But guess what, your balance vanishes after 30 days. Unless you top it up but that effectively makes it some sort of minimum monthly rate. And if you want at least half-decent rates you have to pick a plan that increases your minimum top-up from $10 to $20. Even then terms are worse than in Germany. Now I wanted to buy a SIM card anyway because going on to use my German one would probably drain my account faster than I could say “what the f...”. So yesterday I went to a Rogers store as those guys seemed to have the “best” (least bad) terms. Well, the guy was friendly. They didn't have any SIM cards, though, so he sent me to a Rogers video store close by. The guy there, again, was very friendly, but some sort of central Rogers server didn't let him complete the form he was filling my data in. So a wasted one and a half hours later I went back home without a SIM card.

Sightseeing teaser

Today Christoph and Nancy took me out on a sightseeing tour. We didn't have much time so it was more of a teaser to visit those places with some more time. We had dinner at the Ottavio and a fantastic view from Ten Mile Point (I think :>, too many new places) over to Mount Baker, in the US. We were also up on Mount Douglas, lots of great views. Need to go there again with a real camera.

Second night out

No time to waste, Julie took me out to the Swans last night and we met up with two other guys. Nice location, nice people, nice jazzy music, award winning home-brewn beers, return home late at night. What more can I say? :) Oh, there is indeed something: a lovely walkway right at the water, photos to follow.

UVic club

Today Jens took us to the UVic club (http://club.uvic.ca/) for lunch (and even treated us, thanks Jens!). Nice on-campus location, that was our view while eating:

Fountain in UVic club pond

Happy bus drivers in Victoria

I went to UVic today to meet Jens and Christoph for lunch. The one striking fact about going by bus in Victoria is that bus drivers here seem to love their job. In Germany they usually hate it with a passion. And in both places you really feel the vibrations when you enter the bus. Today I had a driver, grinning all the time, wearing cool sunglasses, it was a pleasure to watch him do his job. Plus people say “thanks” when they leave the bus. People seem to be friendly here, I like the place. Besides, buses seem to be extremely on time, with a tendency to be early even. That's why I missed my first bus today :).

Mixed flight experiences

Here I am, finally, after an exhausting flight to the west coast. And beyond, actually, because I'm on Vancouver Island now. I got up yesterday at 5 in the morning, finished packing my bags, turned off water, gas and electricity (reassuring myself here) and took the train to Frankfurt International Airport. Well, actually I got off the train in Frankfurt main station to buy a present for Jens and Christoph and then went on to the airport.

Funky long legs in train door window

Actually I only wanted to write about the flights but now that I write "airport", the Frankfurt one deserves a special note: it was surprisingly difficult for me to find restrooms. I would have even forgotten about it after being awake for about 30 hours but a guy I talked to told me that it was the same experience for him. So at least it wasn't only me being too stupid. The flight, well, it was as good as a flight to the west coast in economy can be. Forcing a 6'2'' body into an economy seat for almost eleven hours simply doesn't feel too good, I still got a sore back. The service was great, though. The flight attendants were extremely friendly, the food was great (I had pasta twice), the drinks were plenty (I had red wine, Campari orange, Baileys, water, coffee, a couple of each actually). Later on I found out what seems to be the reason for the what felt like an extra special treatment, quoting the announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this flight has been selected to do a customer survey...”. Well, anyway, I can only say that “there's no better way to fly”. Except business class for example.

Lufthansa Airbus

Of course the Lufthansa part was too smooth so Air Canada had to screw it up. I only had one hundred minutes to switch planes. Theoretically, that is, practically the flight from Frankfurt was a little late and the line at Vancouver Airport was long. Half an hour before departure (and five minutes after boarding time) I was still in line. When I finally got to the counter the lady there kept on asking questions why I was coming to Canada, where I will stay, blah blah blah. Then I had to reclaim my baggage, carry it to the customs counter and check it back in for the flight to Victoria! How stupid is that?! And why do you get a schedule that tight when you got so many things to do? So I was running back and forth the hall, literally, from one counter to the next, it was a hot day, I was covered in sweat, they took away my gifts for Jens and Christoph (a special kind of German sausage), I rushed through corridors that didn't seem to end, an elevator here, stairs there, being sent back to put my luggage on a conveyor belt, another security check, with a waiting line of course, having to finish my water bottle (being the evil MacGyver terrorist that I am), being thirsty nevertheless, more corridors, stairs, interpreting signs where to go, never being really sure whether I'm on the right way at all, finally getting to the right gate, running outside, one minute to four, getting on the plane, stewardess closing the door, taking a seat, off we go. That was last minute, literally. The plane was a small one, the flight was a short one, low altitude, nice view, no seat at the window, though. And then, the screw-up: baggage reclaim, well, supposed to be, my bag wasn't there. Being all sweaty and greasy and stinky smelly yucky, having no clothes to change was among the worst things that could happen to me, close to a plane crash. So I went to the Air Canada baggage counter and the woman made up for it. She was really really friendly and helpful and told me that my bag might even be on the next plane coming in from Vancouver. So she filled in some form for me and gave me a delayed baggage card and when I went I luckily saw Christoph waiting in the hall. Well, at least I was pretty sure I saw Christoph since I had never met him in person by that time :). We had already exchanged a lot of emails and he was (and still is) the greatest help since sliced bread. So we went to the Starbucks at the airport and I had an Americano to help keep me awake. Some nice talking later (I guess I wasn't too entertaining, though) we went back to the counter to hopefully get my bag but it still wasn't there. The lady promised me it would arrive the same day because she had still several flights coming in until midnight and on one of them the bag should really be. (A couple days before I went to Canada my brother actually sent me a link to a blog entry while we were chatting. Seth Godin had some interesting thoughts about the air line industry. Although I don't share the damning report of Air Canada being “the single worst major airline in North America”, that might just be because it was only a 22 minutes flight—long enough to mess up my baggage. I guess I don't wanna know what they would be able to do on a ten hour flight :>.) So Christoph took me to his place to lend me some fresh clothes where Nancy, his girl, joined us and then took me to my place where we met my roommates. Julie showed me the place and lend me a towel and told me I could use her shower gel and stuff. The girls went off to an appointment, not without inviting us to join them later. The shower, I simply can't put it in words, was good. The two took me to a drugstore so I could buy some personal hygiene articles, we tried to call the Air Canada “hotline“ a few times and sure enough I was on hold for more than ten minutes each time before I hung up. We went to the Spinnakers for dinner, a lovely place with a great view across the harbor. Plus they brew their own beer, great. After that Christoph and Nancy took me home and I finally finally finally went to bed and fell asleep very very quickly. Only to wake up again at five in the morning but that will be another blog entry.

Final preparations

So, I'll depart on Monday. So many things done and left to do, and more of them more complicated than I thought they would and than I think they should be. Despite that and despite all of the bureaucracy it will hopefully be a great time in Canada. I finally bought my plane tickets, my traveling bag and got health insurance, the latter one being a crucial item of my todo list as I am a spoiled German (communist, as US propagandists^Hpoliticians would probably add—yeah, I watched Sicko). There's quite a range of prices for health insurance, actually, which kind of surprised me. I got it for €130 now (about $200) and could have easily paid €330+ ($530+). Probably money I should have spent partying but well, health care can get really expensive. And there's still a serious amount of party money left on my account... :)