An aircraft is about to crash

An aircraft is about to crash. There are five passengers on board, but unfortunately only four parachutes.

The first passenger says "I'm Shaquille O'Neill, the best NBA basketball player. The Lakers need me - it would be unfair to them if I died." So he takes the first parachute and jumps.

The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, says "I am the wife of the former President of the United States. I am also the most dedicated woman in the world, a Senator in New York and America's potential future President." She takes one of the parachutes and jumps.

The third passenger, George W. Bush, says "I am the President of the United States of America. I have a huge responsibility in world politics. And apart from that, I am the most intelligent President in the history of the country and I have a responsibility to my people not to die." So he takes a parachute and jumps.

The fourth passenger, the Pope, says to the fifth passenger, a ten year old schoolboy "I am already old. I have already lived my life. As a good person and a priest, I will give you the last parachute."

The boy replies "No problem, there is also a parachute for you. America's most intelligent President has taken my schoolbag."

Seeing Red

I finished my first week of work at the airport on Friday. It's been a good week, despite waking up at 6am every morning to get there on time, and standing on my feet for hours and hours every day.

Most of the people coming into Canada are really friendly and polite, but some can be really rude. Luckily, my coworkers are all really nice so going to work is never a sad thing. After work on Friday we all went to the Elephant and Castle, a little "pub" in the international arrivals waiting area, and had a good chat before heading home. Amanda had her camera so a stranger took a photo of all of us. We're "Travel Coordinators" technically, but we're only known as the Red Shirts:


From Left to Right: Laura, Amanda, Peggy, Diana, me, Mark.


I think this is going to be a good summer.

First Day of Work!

Today was my first day at my new summer job as a Travel Coordinator for the Canada Border Services Authority at the Vancouver Int'l Airport. Essentially, what I do is help speed up the waiting line for people flying into Vancouver from outside of Canada by making sure their forms are filled in, they have their passports etc ready, and answer random questions.

My coworkers, all SFU and UBC students, are über cool and super nice. One of my coworkers was in my French class this past semester, and I met another one before we had our interviews a wayyys back, and two of them know my friend's girlfriend. Small world eh? Not to mention they also both know a girl working at the Bowen Island Museum, where I worked two years ago.

Our various superiors all seem very happy with their jobs and are very approachable, which is great.

It's not the hardest job in the world, even though we'll be standing on our feet (what else would we stand on?) most of the day, but it's just what I need right now. A bit of interaction with random strangers, very low stress levels, and decent pay. And once it stops raining, I will hopefully be cycling to work most days.

It's going to be an interesting challenge getting from the airport to UBC by bus/bike when work ends at 6pm (starting next week) and class starts at 7pm, but it seems that I can pull it off if the buses run on schedule.

Do I get a uniform? Of course. I'll put a pic up some other time, but right now I can show what I bought a few days ago for this job and my wardrobe needs in general:

Black pants for work - $53




Black socks x 9 pairs, white socks x 4 pairs for work and all other sock-wearing activities - $23




Undershirts x3 for work - $15




Shoes/boots (size 12 = 13 inches / 33 cm long) for work - $50



Leather protection spray for my work shoes and steel-toe boots - $11





I can't show you photos of our awesome uniform in action - but I'll give you a quick description: bullet proof vest, baton, helmet with visor, bulletproof glass riot shield. Our gloves have lead beads in the knuckles too. Moral of the uniform story: don't mess with Travel Coordinators ;-)

Chilling on Bowen Island

I had planned on staying over on Bowen until Monday but I got a call from work (starts Tuesday), informing me of the need for black pants. I have black EMT (paramedic) pants, and black tuxedo pants. No good. So I decided to come home early and go shopping Sunday and/or Monday for pants and black shoes to accompany them.

I had a nice 3 day stay on Bowen. I did very little. I read a bit of my European Union textbooks, went rowing five times, and hung out with my Granny and Uncle David.

I take the ferry so often that I rarely take photos during the ride, while tourists snap away madly in good weather all around me. The wind was really great though, so I did take one photo:




I really enjoy going rowing alone and relaxing on the float, below the boathouse:




The rowboat is a bit over 40 years old now - my mom used to row it when she was young! It's called Jaro (all boats have names), which comes from James + Rosemary, my uncle and mom, the two youngest in their family.




While out rowing, I spotted this bird (I think it's a shag, but I'm no ornithologist) sitting happily on a buoy.




Then it became less happy and left!




There was a fierce storm, the worst in decades, several weeks ago. It did a lot of damage, including ripping the ramp of our neighbour's float off. It also destroyed part of the wooden floor outside our boathouse. This has never happened in the 48 years my Granny has had the place.




Uncle David, Mr Fix-It, has been working hard to fix supports under the boathouse which were washed away - they hold up the boathouse, so they're very important.






I had a bit too much time with not enough to do (there are limits to how much rowing and studying I can do) so I ended up doing a LOT of thinking, which at times got me feeling a little bit blue, kind of like this puppy which is up on the wall of the cabin I stay in:




There are some really random things in that cabin, and one of the things that always makes me laugh for some reason is this one:




Today I went rowing in the morning for about half an hour. I was going to go rowing again at about 1pm when the sun came out and it was super windy. After 5 minutes on the water I decided it was too rough and that, if the waves got much higher, it would be too difficult to bring the boat back in without help. As it was, it took me about 5 minutes to get the boat in after several failed attempts, when it normally takes all of 30 seconds.

The ferry and bus rides home were pretty smooth and uneventful, the way I like them. Took me a total of 2 hrs 20 mins to get from the cabin to my house in Vancouver. Not bad.

Ferry boat

I'm heading out of town again. Just for a few days for the long weekend, heading out to Bowen Island to chill alone and study, relax, and do a lot of rowing in the bay.

I may take photos and, if so, more likely than not I'll post a few on here when I get the time. Here's a way old pic of me and one of my baby sister's friends in the rowboat three years ago.

on driving

Some days you're a windshield and some days you're a bug. Today I feel more like the squeegee. You know the people who clean your windshield down at Main and Terminal with a filthy squeegee? Sometimes they do an OK job, and you drive off with a slightly clearer view of the road ahead.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Heading Out

My flight leaves in 5 hours. I'll be back home in 8 days.

Today is bright and sunny. No snow will delay my flight 3 hours this time around.