Winter Break Activities

With a new term about to start tomorrow, it is probably time we shared what we've been doing in the last month. Our friend, Sam, arrived on our last day of term (and leaves us next Sunday to return to NZ) so many of our activities have been helping him explore Vancouver and its surrounds.

Once Nathan's final exam and Bronwyn's final assignment were completed we were free to relax a little before Christmas. Some last minute Christmas shopping and a round of catch-ups with friends filled in the week nicely. We also took Sam across on the sea-bus to Lonsdale Quay, walked through Gastown, and also visited the Vancouver Aquarium.

On Christmas Eve we cooked a traditional Christmas dinner and ate with our friends, Esther and Kev. It seemed much more appropriate to be eating roast chicken with cranberry stuffing, and steamed pudding in the cold weather of the Northern hemisphere winter than it does in NZ's summer! So no pavlova and strawberries on the menu this year.

Christmas Day dawned grey and rainy (as many days do here!) but Sam's snow prayers were answered, and he got his 'white Christmas' by the mid afternoon. After a less-hectic-than-usual Christmas day we went to Claire's house in the late afternoon and had dinner with her housemates and a collection of other 'family-less' people from their church and work circles. It was a feast of turkey, lamb, potatoes, yams (like orange kumara), broccoli salad, brussel sprouts, and all the trimmings. Dessert included crepes with ricotta or nutella, icecream, and Christmas cake. We could have easily rolled home down the hill by the end of the evening, so our waistlines haven't really benefitted from not having our mums' cooking for Christmas!

Boxing Day saw us working off some of that food by taking the ferry to Bowen Island (off West Van) and walking near the lake with Sam and Claire. After the Christmas snowfall, the trip was full of postcard-worthy scenery. The day was rounded off with a (very late) lunch of fish and chips (with cod, halibut, and salmon on offer).

Another site-seeing day took us to Granville Island: to the markets, through the artsy shops, and on a tour of Granville Island Brewery. Bronwyn was surprised to find a beer she liked! Sam and Nathan enjoyed finishing off the rest of her tastings.

On New Year's Eve we hired a car, took another ferry to Vancouver Island and stayed in a hostel in Victoria for three days. We were lucky to see two bald eagles swoop down past our car as we waited to board the ferry. They are much bigger than you would expect! In Victoria we watched an IMAX film, walked around town a lot, and visited Butchart Gardens again (see the post below). Sam's highlight was going whale watching. It isn't the season for seeing whales, but his group saw part of a pod of orca that hadn't been sighted for two months!

Back on the mainland we took a drive out to Fort Langley (about an hour east of where we live). This is the site of an early settlement, where the 'first nations inhabitants' traded furs, salmon and cranberries with the Hudson Bay Trading Company in the years before the Klondike gold rush. It is the place where British Columbia was declared to be a British colony in 1858. The displays in the fort buildings were very interesting and there was a carpenter on hand to explain coopering (making barrels).

Another day we visited the Museum of Anthropology (on the UBC campus). They have a huge collection of first nations artifacts, including some very impressive totem poles. Rather than have much of their collection hidden in storage, they have a large amount in "visual storage" so visitors can see most of the artifacts, even if they aren't labelled beyond a reference number. While they had a lot of masks and carvings from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia that were similar to the native art, there wasn't any reference to Maori art beyond a pipe and a tiki. That seemed surprising, given the similaritiy between the totems and canoes and Maori waka and marae carvings/posts.

We spent three days in Seattle last week. Our hostel was right opposite Pike Market, so we visited the first-ever Starbucks, found The Confectional (a cheesecake company started in Wellington - so we kiwis got a free cheesecake truffle each - divine!), and made multiple visits to The Crumpet Shop (our favourite was the scrumptious ricotta and orange marmalade crumpet, and the unlimited refills of tea). We also took the Underground Tour, a walking tour of the original level of city development, now at basement level. The footpaths in the 'current' city are built over this original level, creating a network of tunnels under the city. The history of the city was rather colourful too (e.g. the occupation of 80% of the female population in the early history of this logging, shipping, and gold-rush settlement were "seamstresses" - yeah right!) Sam also took a background tour of the Seattle library (the main reason for the trip) and went up the Seattle Space Needle. We also saw a very good movie, The Great Debaters, which is worth a look.

On our way back to Vancouver we visited the Boeing Factory in Everett. It is the largest building (by volume) in the world. At about a kilometre long, two-thirds of a kilometre wide, and a ceiling nine storeys above the floor it made a 747 look small! This was put into perspective when we stood next to the vertical tail fin about three storeys tall. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos in the actual factory because of commercial sensitivity so have a look at their website here.

The night we returned to Vancouver held some excitement. We were woken early in the morning (4.30am-ish) to the sound of breaking glass and sirens! The house next door (i.e. less than 2m from our wall) was ablaze, so we quickly dressed and prepared to evacuate. The five appliances had the fire under control promptly, and the building was concrete so we weren't in any real danger, though the flames and smoke were spectacular. Our neighbours were a little less lucky. The top of the house has been gutted, and the basement damaged by water. Thankfully no-one was hurt, but some shoes and warm clothes didn't go amiss! It was only about 9 months ago that their roof was damaged by the tree that fell in front of our property (see here).

The last few days back in Vancouver have seen us try to get back into some 'normal' routines as another busy term approaches. We are both taking three courses this term, as follows:

Nathan:
Christian Thought & Culture 2 (to follow CTC1 last term)
Introductory Greek 2 (to follow Greek from last term)
Biblical Exegesis (Biblical interpretation)

Bronwyn:
Christian Thought & Culture 2 (to follow CTC1 last term)
Christian Imagination (looking at Christian philosophy and the arts)
History of Christianity 2 (a requirement for her course, now that she has decided to go beyond the Diploma to complete her Master of Christian Studies - MCS)
She also is continuing her part-time job of catering assistant for various faculty functions during the term.

Finally, here are some photos of where we study: the Regent College building and the wind tower over the (underground) library. P.S. Yes, it is often this cloudy - just add rain for authenticity! Some friends call Vancouver "Brollywood" in reference to the film industry here, as well as the weather.