Earthquakes

All these bad news lately.
Haiti struck with some 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and now Chile gets hit with a more vicious 8.8 magnitude earthquake. What's happening to our world? It scares me to think that at some point in the near future, it is a big possibility that Philippines may be hit as well. Who knows. I certainly hope not. But with what's happening in our world today, no one can predict. Anything can happen and we can only pray for the best.

King Crab!

So our landlady comes home at around 9pm bringing this:



I have no idea how my landlady will cook this.



And nor have I any idea how we will finish it.

Various Olympic Sites

I just love the colors of this year's Olympics. The colors are so refreshing.

This picture's at BC Place. BC Place was where the opening ceremonies were held.



Here's a shot of the Athlete's village from afar:



The TELUS Science World (Globe) temporarily houses the Russia House.



Somewhere in the vast Concord area, houses Saskatchewan (if I'm not mistaken). I wasn't able to enter. We just walked around.

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch @ Kingsway

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics is just around the corner and we were lucky enough that the torch relay passed by our office this afternoon! So at around 12 noon, we stopped working for a while (hehe) and headed out to see the torch bearer passing by Kingsway.

Here I am at the street, waving a Canadian flag (even if I am not Canadian) and waiting together with the crowd for the Olympic torch convoy. Mahangin sa labas!



So the convoy was not too long, the first part were policemen in bicycles... and then comes the policemen in motorbikes...



Here comes Coca Cola caravan!



For now I don't have the pictures of the actual torch relay itself... since by the time it came, I was out of space for my camera. Turns out, I forgot to put the memory card back in. So I'm still waiting to get the pictures from my friend.

There were a lot of people around, everyone was excited, having fun! It was such a great experience! And tomorrow night is the opening ceremonies. Of course we don't have tickets for the opening ceremonies, but we'll be going around downtown Vancouver since we heard that there's so much happening there. It'll be a blast! And I'll make sure I have my memory card in the camera this time around!

Ok, I just realized the dates in my camera are still in Philippine time. This is supposed to be Feb 11!!

3rd time in vancouver

I'm finally back in Vancouver, third time around. I'm now staying at one of the homestays here... and I have a nice big closet and room. It's definitely a change from where I used to live. This time around, I'm paying more, but I get the comforts of having privacy. So far so good, though of course, some times I still think that I might have made a mistake. Living back in Fraser Street with my grandparents was nice too. But I guess at times we really do have to make a choice, and I made this choice to live separately from them in the mean time. And it's always a risk.

Anyway... let's see how I adjust further to this new place. It's been just 3 days. Let's see how it goes.

On a happier note, Olympic fever is hitting the city and I am excited as I'm planning to go walk around downtown this coming weekend with my aunt (and I'm staying overnight in Fraser). The opening is on friday night and there are tons of activities in downtown Vancouver! Can't wait! I'm already thinking of buying souvenir items! When's the next time I'll be in an Olympic city anyway?

Paano Na Kaya

Got to watch "Paano Na Kaya" last Sunday with my friend, friend's sister, and friend's yaya (complete!). For those who do not know, this movie is the second major film release of Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson, the first one being "I've Fallen For You", years ago, which was a major flop. I just have to remind myself that I dragged Chase to watch that movie at Shangrila during prime time and lo and behold, we were the only ones in the movie house. I guess that pretty much says that movie was a flop! But this time around, it was different. We went to watch in Glorietta 4 and there was a line! We ended up watching from the second row.

The movie's not too bad. Although we felt like we were watching Mano Po at times (I guess whenever Ricky Davao talks Chinese), the movie's overall entertaining. Kim and Gerald's really grown up and I think they really did good on this one. I guess from the soap's they've been in, their acting skills have been honed. Still not comparable to John Lloyd and Bea's "One More Chance" (My favorite btw), but still not a bad movie. There were funny moments, and there were kilig moments - especially with the bunch of teenage girls sitting behind us, kilig na kilig - with matching sipa sa upuan ko!

Would I recommend it? I will have to, especially to those who are avid watchers of Filipino drama and love story movies like myself. However, I still don't like their movie poster - mukhang fake.

paying more for space

For the past two years I've gone to Canada, and for a couple of months for each year, I stayed at my grandparent and aunt's place. It has really helped me save a lot more of my per diem because I only gave minimal amount of monthly "fees". For example, compared if I were to rent out or do a homestay, I would probably spend roughly around 750$ per month, while I only spend 300$ when I stay with them. Not to mention the fact that they provide me with pretty much everything (including doing my laundry! hehe).

However, for this third time I'm going, I've been thinking a lot about renting out. You see, one of the main reasons why I'd like to opt to rent outside is because I don't have much privacy at their place. You see, it's a small place, fit for the 3 of them, but not enough room for a +1 (me!). I only stay in the living room, and the thing is, since the place is a condo/apartment, my grandparents, wake up early, and so I have to wake up early too. I guess my main concern was the lack of privacy and space. If I'm vacationing, the setup would be ok, but if I come back all the time, and stay for 3 months at a time, that might be a bit hard, not just for me, but for them too. If I am adjusting, I am pretty sure they are making adjustments from their end too!

And so now that I think about it, I'd like to pay extra to get that space, and remove that burden to them (although they would say I'm not a "burden").

I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing, but I am justifying my decision also based on the fact that I believe when I do rent out, I will grow more independent as I have to do more of the stuff by myself. Will be harder, but a better training ground for me to grow up.

A couple more days left and I haven't decided still.

Now if I rent out, I have two options - with food (homestay), and with no food (just rent out). I'd say I'd be spending roughly 600$ for the no food, while my monthly expense for the homestay will be around 750$ (including breakfast, lunch and dinner).

I know I want to be independent, but homestay is tempting. I just have to clean my room and do laundry.

Decisions. I'm getting quite excited with me "moving out". I feel like I'm growing up.