Alright, I promised some details about my Vancouver Trip so here we go:
It was a 5-6 day trip to Vancouver where we teamed up with another Taiwanese Choir (same branch) for a performance and to my surprise, the performance was held at a high school music theatre! But apparently, Vancouver schools are much richer than those here. Comparatively, it is like we were taught in huts (or what is left of Invuik's K-12 School)! Their theatre was like a miniature Jubilee Auditorium with a completely furnished stage (curtains, stage lights etc.), a full size grand piano, movie theatre like seats, back stage dressing rooms..and the list just goes on and on. It was kinda hard to believe it was a high school - especially when they have condom dispensers in the boys bathrooms. Oh..and the school has its own swimming pool...geez, wonder how many symposiums they must have had ;) But all in all, the performance went very well considering I started practicing my violin part when I got to Vancouver and I'm hoping more trips like these in the future!
But for me, the performance was just a small part of the trip! The best part is I met new people; young and old..and older..and..just plain Annie's love range ;) and in fact, much time was spent (going there and back) just touring the scenic places of BC and Alberta..much of the places were like this:
A lot of the people I met were just daughters of the choir members ;) and we spent quite some together as a group hiking through canyons and other scenic places. Of all the places, I would have to rank Lake Louise at the top..too bad I didn't wake up early enough to enjoy much of it... Speaking of people...
POOOON! It took some coordinating but we managed to meet each other for 15 minutes though we spent some time talking on the phone. Tom is different, he seems much more disciplined but I still see the mischeviousness in him. I think a few months with the old boys would put him back to his old self again. The white guy you see there is his study companion and he's more chinese than some of us! He speaks mandarin! Tom has had some interesting experience during his mission including being flashed by a girl (he claims he immediately looked down at the floor but we all know what he was looking down for :p) and he will tell us all about it when he returns on June 20th. As well, Mark Corey should be returning on the 27th of June.
The bus trip itself was kinda fun...and smelly. I sat at the back of the bus and after a few days, the toilet just smells like...a dead corpse with mint added. Doesn't help when people coming out of the bathroom use the adjacent head rests for support as they return to their seats KNOWING that we know there was no running water to wash their hands! Being a chinese bus full of older folks, we didn't watch any movies and instead turned the bus into a massive sing along. And if there was a video, it would be karoake..so chinese eh? We also had tons of food on the bus from boxes of oranges, watermelons, and even full lunch meals. I felt like an airline stewardess passing the food and collecting garbage all the time. We even packed enough food to have a picnic at a lake for the second day! Freakin slaughterhouse on the bus..
Al Qaeda Camp:
I found this helicopter near the Inn we stayed at which was in the middle of no where...and near a tall grassy field. I was gonna take some pictures in the morning but by then, it had already left. As you can see, the helicopter is unmarked and does not seem to belong to any company. If its not signs of Al Qaeda activity, then who the hell would park a helicopter just to sleep at an inn! If it were me, I'd land myself on a high rise building and sleep there...
To wrap things up, I WANT TO LIVE IN THE WILDERNESS SURROUNDED BY MOUNTAINS, LAKES AND A FIBRE OPTIC LINE FOR INTERNET. That is all I ask for. Here are some interesting stats for my trip:
1) Woke up around 6-7 am for most of the days.
2) Utilized four alarms with varying trigger times and snooze functionality.
3) Slept through alarms on last day.
4) Massive Cell phone bill from one hour worth of long distance calls.
If I have time, I will put up a gallery with more pics.