Art Update

Hello!

Yet another update - just wanted to say that I've posted some of the sketches I did during my time in Canada and Minnesota - sceneries, live sketches, and even a cartoon.

The pictures are at my DeviantArt account. Just click on the link on the right that says "Justen's DeviantArt" to see them!


Sneak Preview:



Enjoy!

Justen

More to Come

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry about the lapse of silence this last month. Adjusting to classes, St. Olaf, and America in general is taking up all of my time and energy.

I do, however, plan to continue what I started.

Now that I'm starting to settle into my new life here, I'm ready to post more about my vacation in Canada, Minnesota, and finally, life here at St. Olaf.

I think I shall try to condense the amount of information about my vacation; if I were to write in as much detail as I have been, I'd never finish telling about it. But there are plenty of pictures and interesting tales ahead, so please be patient and be ready for more stories about my last summer with my family.

Oh, and if you want to see more pictures from our trip, you can visit my dad's facebook and check out his albums of our trip. There are some stunning pictures that I won't re-post here as there are just too many of them.

Dad's Facebook




I miss Taipei already and the people in it!

Justen

Killer Whales

(sorry, this was supposed to be posted earlier but after writing the draft, I was once again, without internet. Keep in mind this was written more or else a month ago).


I am finally at a computer - my new laptop, to be exact. Finally I have freedom! It's a shiny new Lenovo Thinkpad, a 15.4 inch screen and with 1 GB of extra memory. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium 34, which is working really well, despite all the bad reviews. One awesome/quirky thing is that it has a finger print recognition programme and device - in fact when I bring my computer up after its gone to "Sleep", that's how I log back in. I just swipe my finger along this metal groove and - presto! I'm in. This also means if it gets stolen it will be useless without me there.

Geoffrey said that it wouldn't be a problem as the thief has only to take off my finger (and leave the rest of me) to be able to use my computer.



I always knew my brother was there to support me.

Anyways, a lot has happened since the last post. Our family camped for the majority of the time, hence the not posting anything. But now I plan to make up for the lost posts, even though my memory is fading because of the multitude of things we did and saw. The dates will not be extact and events may not be in order, but it should be relatively accurate.

I start where I left off.

From Vancouver. The raccoons. And the aquarium at Stanley Park.







To Killer Whales.


If you want whale watching, go to Victoria Island. It's a beautiful island, with a highly touristy but colourfully decorated town.


To get there we had to get up pretty early and take the MRT to the Central Station. There you get onto a bus for a 3 hour ride to the coast of Vancouver. There you get to the wharf for a 1 hour ferry ride. When the ferry get to Victoria Island, you get back onto the bus (it rode the ferry in the bottom hold) and ride for another 1 or 2 until get to the actual town. You get off the bus, get out your map and try to figure out where to docks are. You get there after a few circles and then finally the right street. And walk down the dock - there are speed boats of bright red and yellow bobbing in the water, waiting. People are gutting the fish they caught on their sea fishing trip and there are fat seals rolling in the shallow water, poking at bits of offal in the water.

Hello - you've finally arrived.

Needless it was tiring just getting there. But for Killer Whales, what wouldn't you do? The ferry to get to Victoria Island was the most interesting part. The holding deck was huge space; it felt as big as a football field, and it might have been. When you step off the bus, your head is attacked by a throbbing noise - a terrible hum. Huge trucks crouch on either side of your bus, towering your puny public transport vehicle. It gleams in the greenish light of a confined space - it looks like it could eat your bus for breakfast. Easily.

When you reach the top deck, you feel a sharp cold breeze - you take a breath. The floor beneath you moves. There is noise of the gusts of wind, the engines churning the water, the gulls, odd boat noises - clicks and whails throughout the ship itself.

The back of the ferry is easily the best spot - as the smaller islands ( some with houses perched on them ) float past, a white tail of water follows the ship.





There's everything in the ferry's lower decks: an arcade centre, a children's play area, a restaurant, and even a jewlery store. I was surprised how big the whole thing was. If we were going down like Titanic, well, it would sure be a lot sweeter and more stylish than going down in the Titanic.

An almost as cold as in Titanic. Remember the cold in Titanic? The freezing cold that killed Jack tearing Roze's one true love from her, making her already depressing life more depressing? It was that kind of cold. The winds were strong and despite several layers of clothing, it was difficult to stay out on the open deck for long, it was so cold.


Victoria Island itself is a colorful, lively place - full of people who have all the time in the world to explore this Disneyland of tourist islands.


Well, we soon found the small dock and the man with the boat. We put on these bright red spacesuit. The man said it was for insulation against the cold. Our family was 4 out of the 12 passengers. We were all dressed up like huge red cold pills and complaining about how hot it was under the sun. But we soon stopped complaining when we got into the boat and started bouncing along the surface of the water. The water sprayed in huge sheets and trickled into our suits. The wind tore at our faces, making them numb with cold. I think we stopped complaining because our mouths were frozen shut, it was that cold.


(Geoff's neck is frozen in place)

The boat was going at a terrific speed, bouncing over waves and lifting us out of our seats with the bumps. Each time he slowed the boat down, we'd smack back down into our seats with a butt-smarting smack. It was better than a roller coaster ride.

The man circled the island itself, pointing out to us the bald eagles and seals that lived near the coast. We also ran into a patch of bull kelp, a sort of seaweed, which grew, so he claimed, a half a foot a day. He pulled a piece of kelp from the water and passed it around, and we nibbled at it. It tasted like salty raw cabbage.

Then he took us out to open waters, were the waves got higher and the ride got rougher. At one point we were hanging onto the railings for dear life as we dropped a good 2 metres from the crest of one wave to the low trough of another. One of the men sitting in the front of the boat had his hat torn off by the wind and spray.

Finally, the guide stopped. We had no idea why; we hadn't seen any killer whales. We looked around. There was a lot of water - dark, choppy water that sparkled a bit too brightly for comfort. He killed the engine and we were in absolute silence.

"There's a calf and her mother in the area; they may come out of curiosity and check us out."

One of the kids in the front then yelled, "It's right there!"

In the distance, maybe 300 or 400 metres away, we saw a gust of water being blown up, and a dark shape rolling through the water. Everyone craned their necks and tried to follow the calf as if played in the water. It was difficult though; it was hard to tell the baby killer whale from the dark waves. The sun got in our eyes, but we were so excited, we didn't care.

Suddenly we heard a great noise of rushing air (like a very long sneeze) and right beside the boat, out of the water, emerged a mammoth dorsal fin. It was the mother. She had snuck up on us.


I could feel the thrill running through my body.

After the first encounter, we rode further out, constantly on the look out for more.

We had another 9 or 10 other sightings.

I thought it could be so exciting. You're constantly scanning the horizon for that puff of spray, that sound of a whale's breath, and then, just when you think that must have been the last one, a movement at the corner of your eye catches your attention. First you hear it. Then you see it.

The magnificent animals of Victoria Island.

Raccoons in Vancouver

We landed in VC (Vancouver) in the afternoon, but having gone 20 hours without decent sleep, I was pretty pooped out. We were picked up by Mr. Chen, a friend of dad's from church. We were going to stay at their house for the next few days. The house was huge; we had the entire basement floor to ourselves - complete with living room, bathroom, 2 bedrooms and even a kitchen! Oh, and a washer and dryer. I have no idea what the Chen's were thinking when they bought the house - were they secretly planning on our arrival years before we even thought about visiting them?! No, calm down, nothing so sinister; simply amazing convenience.

In fact, it was so amazing that I dumped my bags in the living room and made a beeline for the bedroom, pulled the curtains down and fell instantly asleep.

Later that night I woke up to find every one putting away dinner and getting ready for bed. I didn't feel like sleeping so I ate the leftovers while they fell asleep and then I sketched for about 2 hours while watching the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on tv.




Our second day in VC (Vancouver) was all about Stanley Park - a huge green area with an aquarium and many flowers. The thing that impresses me about VC is that people take their yards very seriously. It's like a badge of honor or something, but the colors are dazzling - whites, purples and yellows. The scene feels very Mediterranean.

First, though, Mr. Chen took us to see his beautiful church. It's very different from either the grand cathedrals or the modern American/ Canadian church buildings. Most of it was clear glass; services are lit by natural sunlight. It's surrounded by natural woodland and there are crows perched on every other tree.





Sorry, got off track.


Stanley Park was pleasant, until we spotted raccoons. Then we were impressed. These raccoons weren't afraid of the people at all; one walked right passed me. I watched it as it approached, waiting for it to see me and run, but it just kept trucking on through. We hung around, watching the raccoons. They fished in the park's stream and ran around in the grass. They were very cute, but hard to get a decent picture of as they were so fast.


We spent most of the day in the aquarium. After the Kenting Aquarium and Zoo, though it seemed a bit small, but the selection of animals were very different from the Kenting though. They had sloths, alligators, and fishes from the Amazon.


We even saw Beluga whales, but we were sleepy by lunch time.

I have to say, the food here this rather ... expensive. A small plate of salad cost me $4.50 (multiply by 30). And the rest of the menu consisted of fries, burgers, and more fried things. We made our way back to the Chens' ASAP but on the way we got to see more of Vancouver city, which is delightful mix of modern and "classical-looking" buildings.



We had a much more simple dinner (in comparison to the lunch) of bread, jam and cherries.

Oh Canada!

The strange thing about plane rides is the before and after. When I was taking off I felt like a 7 year old who had had too much sugar in a spaceship. I twisted my neck silly trying to see everything, tried all the buttons, flipped through those useless magazines and kept adjusting the tilt of my tv screen. I had an early flight - 12:05 in the afternoon so I was pretty much awake through out the flight.

We flew to Hong Kong for our transfer to Vancouver. The first flight was pretty pleasant; I watched an episode of my favorite TV show, The Office (which I normally have to download by means less than legal). But the best part was landing and seeing Hong Kong and its islands emerge from underneath the sea of clouds.


There were beautiful long stretches of white beaches (you can kind of see it at the bottom of the picture) and tiny dots of islets - my image of Hong Kong had always been a smog-y metropolitan - not this exotic island picture!

Maybe being hundreds of metres in the air helps.

The start of the second flight was just as exciting - I guess I'm a sucker for take-offs - and also because my dad had ordered western-vegetarian lunches. I had no idea what it meant so it was interesting to find out. ''Western'' turns out to mean eggs and dairy products. We had a lasagna dinner, but I found that when they said vegertarian, it means ''much cheese and eggs as we can substitute for vegetables''. It was like eating a block of pure cheese. It was so rich that none of us could really finish our portion. You had to eat a bite, drink some water and wait for it to settle to the bottom of your stomach before you could continue your abnormally lengthy meal. Lord, it was like eating weights. Also, everything tasted of mushrooms, even the fruit. Weird.

By the time I was feeling sleepy, however, my fun-metre was running an all time low. I was suddenly incredibly tired, but it seemed that everyone else, especially this Chinese lady and her baby to my immediate left, was not. The baby's noises, which were cute at first were now like thorns in my side. The boy kept saying ''Plane! Plane! Plane!''. At 12:05, he started his routine for the billionth time - by which time it was starting to sound like ''Pain! Pain! Pain!'' - which was what I was feeling. The mother obviously thought it was endearing, because she did nothing but order more Cup Of Noodles - the smell of which never went away for the remainder of the flight.

I read that, to save money, airplane companies turn down the flow of oxygen - thus saving about 8 dollars a minute (myth or fact? Frankly I can't remember). By the end of the trip I was pretty much convinced that it was true, because I felt like an old sock. A rolled-up old sock. So it was a tear-jerking sight to see, after endless trips to the cubicle-toilet and vege-cheese meals, the first sight of Canada.

It was mostly green, with great stretches of lakes and many islands. It looked like a place worth exploring.


We were finally in Vancouver.



(More later, as my car-ride to Kamloops is here and my famliy and I are once again on the move!)

Land of Ten Thousand Lakes - An Introduction to Minnesota

Minnesota is known as the "Land of Then Thousand Lakes" as it is teeming with bodies of water - check out a terrain map of Minnesota and it looks like a human artery system.

The state is generally unpopulated (well, ok, sparsely populated), with little under 5 million people spread over 87,014 sq mi.







Yes, that puts things into perspective, doesn't it?


With all that great out doors, Minnesotans are very environmentally friendly - my St. Olaf brochure was printed on recycled paper. (Recycled paper - what's that?!!) People enjoy hunting (ok, not so environmentally friendly), camping, and, with all that water, fishing. Over 36% of Minnesotans fish!


The problem with the great out doors is that, being so great and outside-ish, it snows for about 1/3 of the year. People who stay indoors from the snow can get "cabin fever" - which actually isn't a fever at all but a mild craziness. Winter sports are therefore almost a must-do to prevent half of the population from going nuts - ice fishing, skiing, and (my favorite) figure skating are all encouraged. No wonder it's the 2nd healthiest state in the nation!




A huge majority of Minnesotans are of Scandinavian or German decent. So lots of blonds.

But they aren't a bunch of provincials - Minneapolis and St. Paul is known to be the home of artists and writers. There are festivals all year round for dance, visual arts, and music - especially folk music. It's one of the most educated and literate states in the U.S (wiki).



Other miscellaneous information include:

• they seem to have an over-abundance of squirrels
• many Minnesotans speak English with a Scandinavian-influenced accent
• lots of the people there are Lutherans

The snow worries me. Quite a bit. So does the accent.

But if I can learn to speak like a Norseman and dress in woolly jumpers, I imagine everything else will fall into place.

It'll be a very cold Renaissance.

Post Toast

Again another test to see how the RSS feed works.

Cheers!

Mot Juste

Thanks to my dad, I've come up with probably the best name a blog could ever have. The other choices were "Waterlaf - Justen's life at St. Olaf" and "Mot Juste" (French for "appropriate word"). Anyways, this is just a test post to see what's what.

Fire in the hole.

Test:
看看blogger可不可以寫中文