Thursday, April 30, 2009

Salsa Night and Timeout

After a fun night of attempting Tango, tonight I took the bait and went to try salsa. Last time I tried salsa was almost 5 years ago, so it was all brand new to me by now.

Started off with a quick lesson to learn a couple basic moves. Then tried dancing a little bit with some fellow beginners. It was pretty fun, but also pretty tiring for me. Keeping count, keeping the steps... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... who knew counting could be so hard!?

Dancing guru as always is AWESOME at dancing... completely mesmerized when she dances... Think I will look into taking some classes...supposedly it only took her one year and a little bit to get that good.

After the salsa dancing, went to the weekly Kirkland hangout to welcome the fellow intern back as a full fledged full-timer. Had some ridiculous mystery drink that was awfully minty and strong, but made me really good at pool it turns out because I was sinking tons of balls.

Got home at a decent hour... but ended up sleeping at 4am-ish...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tango Day!

Watching ppl dance is pretty cool. Tried something new today and went to watch a Tango dance show. Turns out tango is supposedly an older person dance - but it almost felt like art in motion -- so much different than the dancing you see at clubbing...

So the show was one which the main couple dances on stage for two songs, then they rest while the people who are watching get to dance for a little bit. Always wanting to try new things, the dancing guru that I went with showed me a few basic steps and danced with me, and I have to say, it was pretty fun! I was really surprised at her patience though, cuz I was REALLY bad.

The coolest part though was watching her dance... really amazing. She was just flying around the dance floor, and was like an all-star! ...And to think I know her!
I wonder if in one year, I can dance just as well as her...

After that, we went for dinner at the sushi joint at Snoqualmie... they have pretty good sushi there surprisingly.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Vanc Part III: Granville Island and End of Wkend

Getting back to the hotel at 3ish, we slept in and woke up to the NBA playoffs... AND the NHL playoffs.

Having exhausted the 3 drink limit rule, today was a relaxing day where we just enjoyed the hotel TV and the Vanc sun. Went to a hk tea cafe for lunch, then with Vanc tour guide #2 guiding us, went to Granville island for a stroll.

Granville Island
Lots of art galleries there, but I guess they were all closed since it was a Sunday...The main place looks more like a disorganized T&T... walked around a little bit, then went to a restaurant and just snacked. Pushed up dinner early and then went back to the hotel to collect my things.

The drive home was more tiring than I thought... Swear I almost dozed off at one point, but luckily ran into a cop and that woke me up quite a bit.. lol. The coolest part about leaving at night is that I can get past the border really quickly. There was minimal wait - which is AWESOME!

Arriving back at home at 2am, ending a weekend of yet another great time in the land of Vancouver!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Vanc Part II: Shanghai Food and K

Waking up to a headache, went to feed the meter and then hunted down a grocery store for some orange juice. Saw an organic mango lemonade along the way, so picked that up and tried it out. Very refreshing!

After bumming around more for the better part of the morning, met up w/ a few Seattle-lites for a dim sum lunch, then walked to GasTown to take a picture of the famous clocktower. After which, we spent 5 minutes figuring out how to buy a ticket to take the SkyTrain, thinking that we'd see the 'sky'...only to find out that the SkyTrain was underground for the one stop we were going on. Turns out the 'sky' in SkyTrain is only valid for the non downtown pieces of the track -- in downtown, it is actually just a subway. If I only knew this, I would not have bought a ticket (they didn't even check our ticket!)

Returning to the hotel, I took a nap to the sounds of the NBA playoffs, and then for dinner, met up w/ some fellow Canadians from Vanc for Shanghai food. The food was really good at this place, and the little dragon dumplings were really good! Looove little dragon dumplings. Surprisingly, even w/ 9ppl at dinner, the bill came out to be LESS than what we had at Guu the night before between 3 ppl.

With dinner over, we then proceeded with the planned the 'KC' Combo Night - a Vanc tradition :). It was a pretty fun time. Learned some new games, met some new friends, and also got my singing fit! Wouldn't wanna do it every week, but once every month or every other month I'd definitely be up for. After K, headed for the C part of the KC Combo Night. I was up for awhile, then got too greedy... tsk tsk. Oh well, let that be a lesson to never be greedy and be content with small victories.

Another fun filled day and night in the city of Vanc!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Vanc Part I: Guuuuuu and Club

A random spur of the moment decision, and before you know it, I was in Vanc :).

First event of the night was going to Guu. Walking around lost in downtown Vanc, I get a phone call... with the question of if I was wearing a white shirt. Hesitantly I said yes, and then realize that I was being stalked and that someone had spotted me in Vanc. I was being stalked!.. lol...

Anyway, after a quick chat, I found my bearings, and then found Guu. Such a great place for food and seeing fellow rooommate waiting in line, the mini-vacation had started! We start eating and sake-ing... and 5 bottles and a ton of food later, we were ready for the next set of events :)

Stopping by for a quick booze run, we pick up some crown royal, predrink, and after this, Vanc tour guide took us clubbing w/ her friends. It was pretty fun, but soo $$$$$. $20 Cover, and every drink was the price of an AMF, with 1/4 of the alcohol. It was pretty fun -- just like old times! Combined with the sake and predrink, my '3 drink limit' was obliterated by 11pm :(. Maybe I need to add a new caveat that the '3 drink limit' rule does not apply in Vanc :P...

The night ended surprisingly early, stopping briefly by the elevator lobby, had to take care of someone who decided to spray the floor with their dinner (and no, it wasn't me!), and then proceeded to the hotel room to order pizza...

My bed invaded...with my classic pose in place, I sleep on the ottoman and called it a night -- too lazy to get up for the pizza that eventually arrived.

So ends night #1.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Cherry Blossom at U-Wash



Meeting up w/ a new friend for food, then heard about the cherry blossom trees that were at U-Wash.

Pretty Nice!