Leaving Canada

Headed Home from Vancouver International Airport

I still remember four days before, when we arrived to Vancouver, Mimi asked us a question "Did I want to go home"? My answer was probably YES. This was because I really missed home, I missed my friends, I missed my bed, I missed everything in Hong Kong! On that moment I only wanted to go home. 😐😐😐😐😐😐

Four days later, I knew that it was time to go home, but I couldn’t bear to leave Canada. I think that 5055 Cordova Bay is my second home. It is such a fun home. It had the Pacific Ocean in front of it to enjoy and play in, and almost every night, we played and sang on the ground floor.

Our big family made up of Mimi, Eric, Steven, Daisy, Takky, Linda, Emily, Summer, Billy, me, gathered here daily and had such fun with each other and all those who came and visited and played with us.  We left, because we had no choice but to leave. It was the end of our time at 5055 Cordova Bay. We had to leave the most beautiful place that I have ever been. It reminds me of the song "Let Her Go", but I will never let her go. All the memories of this journey and all it has taught me, and how it has changed me will always be mine.

But now I am home in Hong Kong, and I am missing Canada!!!😕😕😕😕😕😕I am missing my second home, family, and friends. Every day these, Let Her Go lyrics play in mind:

Well you only need the light when it's burning low.
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow.
Only know you love her when you let her go.
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low.
Only hate the road when you're missing home.
Only know you love her when you let her go.
And you let her go.
Staring at the bottom of your glass,
Hoping one day you'll make a dream last.
But dreams come slow and they go so fast.
You see her when you close your eyes.
Maybe one day you'll understand why.
Everything you touch surely dies.
'Cause you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when ......

I know even if I go to Canada again, the feeling might not be same, but I will not forget anything that I experienced with my second family and friends in Canada!!!🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 What a fabulous journey! It changed me, and doing so, changed my life.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

 

We went to Capilano Suspension Bridge and walked across it.  It shook a lot when we walked, so it was easy to lose my balance, but I am good on my feet, so I didn’t stumble at all. There were so many people. It was hard to really enjoy this experience.  However, the views were stunning, because we not only got to see into the forest but walk at the top of it too. It was neat being in the treetops without having to climb a tree. There were also some really neat waterfalls which I loved seeing. If there hadn’t been so many people, I think it would have been a very lovely and peaceful place to visit.  We also got to see the First Nations totems and have our picture taken with them. They are cool. They tell the story of a family. Even though, I couldn’t understand the pictures and the story, they looked very different and interesting.

Breakfast With The Grizzly Bears

Today, we went to have Breakfast with the Grizzly Bears on Grouse Mountain. This was the  most unforgettable day. I was so excited to have breakfast with the Grizzlies; however, by the end of this activity, I realized that I should not have been excited at all!!  We had to ride a big cable car to the top of Grouse Mountain and then walk for about 20 minutes. First, I hate Cable Cars and second it was very high, so I was very scared!!! 😨😨😨

 My friends always tell me I am very odd, because I like to ride 🎢roller coasters, but I don't like to take cable cars, but that is just the way I am. By the time we arrived at the place where we could watch the Grizzly bears, there were a lot of flies!!!  Not, just a few, but a lot. I thought that if I opened my mouth, they would fly right in and be my breakfast! YUCK!!!! 😣😣😣😣 Because of this, I couldn’t concentrate on the Grizzly Bears or everything our guide told us about them. However, I did they were cute, and I was saddened by how when they were babies their mothers had died and they had to be put in a protected area.

Vancouver Aquarium

 

By the time we left Victoria and went to Vancouver, I was starting to miss home, especially my mom’s cooking. I was enjoying everything we were eating, but there is nothing like my mom’s cooking!  

The first morning was rainy, so we went shopping before going to the Vancouver Aquarium. There were different types sea animals, such as jellyfish, sea turtles, octopus and shrimp etc. Look at last picture, it is a miniature shrimp. Miniature shrimp were discovered in 1981 by scientists. The are 3cm long and they always disappear in shallow rocky areas. 😶😶😶

Britannia Copper Mine

 

 We got up real early for our Squamish-Whistler trip. In Squamish, we went to the Britannica Copper Mine and museum which teaches people about how copper was mined. We even got to go on a real mine railway and go inside the mine itself to learn how copper was mined. This was very interesting and practical, even though I was not so interested in the museum itself, I did really like the panning for gold, copper, and gems activity. I managed to find some of all three. And although my elective is chemistry and I could have learned more about chemistry in the museum, I didn’t find it very interesting, what I did really like was learning more about the history of copper and the role in plays in creating many modern gadgets.   

Butchart Gardens

 

After our four day camping trip in Tofino, we went drove back to Victoria. It was a beautiful drive back and we stopped at Cathedral Grove to see the large Douglas Fir trees. Then, a couple of days later, when we went to Butchart Garden, we could also see large Douglas Fir there as well. Butchart Garden is beautiful.  There are a wide variety flower areas like the Japanese Garden, Sunken Garden, Rose Garden and Italian Garden.

However, we also had a learning task at Butchart Garden, we needed to initiate conversations with strangers, interview them and either audio or video record the interviews. This was very challenging, but we had worked on conversational English in class, and we had also been gradually interacting more and more with Canadians and strangers, so our confidence level was increasing.

At the very beginning of this task, I was quite scared, because for the first time, I was forced to interact before this I was able to do so when and where I wanted. I also had to videotape myself interacting and this made me more anxious.

I asked someone to be interviewed by me, and even though they were very nice, I was afraid that I had made a lot of grammar mistakes and that they didn’t understand what I asked them. This made me very embarrassed 😳😳😳.

However, the more interviews I did, the more relaxed I became, and I found out that just like when I was interacting before, I started forgetting about my grammar and instead focused more on what others were saying and responding to their answers.

Until finally I forgot about worrying about my speech at all, and I started to feel like it was fun to try and start a conversation with someone and find out more about them.  I learned to say what I wanted to say without thinking about my errors, and I was delighted that almost everyone understood my questions and could answer them, and often, I could respond to their answers as well.  It made me understand that if I want to improve my English, I must speak and say what I want to say.😗😗 If I keep in silence, no one can help me even if they are patient, understanding, and kind, and want to help me.

     
 

Canada Day

It was great that we travelled to Canada at a time when we could experience Canada Day – especially Canada Day in a small town.  Canada Day is the national day of Canada. It is a federal statutory holiday to celebrate the anniversary of Canada becoming a country on July 1,1867. Its original name was Dominion Day! Well Canada Day celebrations are a lot different than Hong Kong’s anniversary day. The parks are filled with people, competitions, bands, dancing and all sorts of fun activities.  Look at the picture this is me walking on stilts. It was a ton of fun, but quite difficult as well, because stepping on them takes quite a bit of balance, but walking on stilts, now that takes even more concentration and balance!!! 😚😚😚😚😚 The night ended with fireworks. They were not anything like Hong Kong’s fireworks, but it was great to see everyone come down to the water’s edge to water the display. It was also great to see so many people talking, dancing, and having fun together. It made me feel like everyone knew each other and were best friends, but Eric explained that this is just the Canadian spirt. WOW! I love the Canadian spirit!

Hot Springs

 

Today, we headed to the Hot Springs. It was quite a journey to get there. We took a boat to a island and hiked around 25-30 minutes on a boardwalk, so the hiking was very easy. But when we got to the island, we were greeted by wild dogs – wild in that no one owns them, they roam free, but they were friendly, and one in particular really liked Steven and stayed by his side.  Mimi usually walked in front to keep us moving faster, because without Mimi keeping us going, our pace usually became slower and slower. But one time, Mimi walked quietly ahead and hid behind this huge tree and jumped out right in front of us😨😨😨 and scared us!!! After that, we walked every steps carefully and we didn’t let Mimi out of our sites again, and if for any reason we couldn’t see her, we started looking behind every tree, because we thought Mimi would try and scare us again 😂😂😂

When I got in the hot springs, there was a lot of moss, and the sulphur in the water made it not so clear, so we walked down a bit further to find the best spot. The hot springs were quite small and there were a lot of people, so it was quite crowded, but after camping for a couple of days, it felt great to sit in a pool of hot water. It felt like we were having a big luxurious bath with a lot of people. ☺ ☺ It would have been more fun if there hadn’t been so many people, so we could have played around more rather than just sit in hot water.

Black Bear Watching

 On our second day in Tofino, we went on a bear watching tour. This was a very memorable day! Mimi had the wrong the wrong time, so she let us sleep longer than we should have. She realized her mistake about 20 minutes before the tour was to start, so she called the company and told them our situation. They said they would hold the boat for a few minutes. She woke us so abruptly. We did not have time to brush our teeth or change our clothes, so we were all wearing our pajamas – our pajamas for the most part were sweat pants and sweaters as it was quite chilly at night. By the way, I found out that if someone likes you they will like you, no matter what you wear and who you are.😇😇😇 Because once one the boat, we made friends with Max and Adam, both had lovely personalities and we got to practice lots of English with them. We all played different games with them as well, like staring contests – I think I won! ☺ ☺


Seeing the bears was totally amazing. I thought they would be bigger than they were, but we were told that they were black bears and not the grizzlies, but we also learned that they can run very fast and often kill people if people threaten them or their young.  We also learned that baby bears are most at risk from their fathers, who try to kill them. Their fur looks very sleek and soft. They are very cute and strong. They are cute when they are sleeping on the rocks, but when they are hunt for food they move big rocks as if they are stones and when they catch small animals for food, they crush them with their big paws and jaws.

Campsite Set-up

It took us six hours to drive to Tofino. We played twenty questions, truth or dare and sang many  songs in the cars. We also kept changing vehicles, so we got to travel with different people all the time. I liked this.  This excursion was such fun!!! We had to put up our own tents. Even Mimi and Eric stayed away. They let us read the instructions and work in teams of 4. It took us awhile and lots of talking (in English of course) to figure out just exactly how to raise a tent. We were so proud of ourselves when we finally had our tent up.  This was not my first time to go camping, but it was my first to do real camping and in a foreign country as well. Especially since, these campsites might have bears🐻, raccoons, or even wolves show up at night. We were not allowed ANY food in our tents, not even gum. All the food had to be locked in the vehicles at night.  Also, it was very interesting working the rubbish bins as they were quite different and more difficult to open this was to keep the bears from coming to eat the garbage at night.  

Fat Dad Recording

Today we went to Goldstream Provincial Park and we saw a beautiful waterfall and hiked up to the Trestle Bridge. I love hiking, so I really liked this, but I also really loved walking on the Trestle Bridge. I wasn’t scared at all. It was the coolest thing. Even though it was overcast, the view was beautiful. We also met some other hikers and got to talk to some young lacrosse players. They were very cute!

After hiking up to the Trestle bridge and having a picnic on the bridge, we came home and got cleaned up because guess what – we were going to a professional recording studio to record the song "One Call Away". I am not that good at singing, so when I arrived at the studio I was already nervous, but when I learned that each of us would be recorded as a solo, I was even more nervous.  I wanted to run away. However, I know that no matter what's might go wrong, I I must try my best.

When I was recording, I can't catch the mmelody, so I sang a bit out of sync with the misic. I wanted to cry at this moment, because I ccouldn’t finish the whole song.☹☹☹☹ I was not really happy about this experience, but it was still an unforgettable experience. And although, I learned that I find it hard to catch the melody of a song, I also gained more confidence by trying something that was very difficult for me – not just at a skill level, but at an emotional level as well. I found out that I am emotionally stronger than I thought I was and this is TOTALLY the BEST part about this experience.  🙃🙃🙃

Meeting New Friends

 

Also we climbed on an old Arbutus 🌳tree after we saw the animals. I can't believe that I can climb on the trees and that it is not illegal. When I was climbing on the tree I felt as free and naughty as a little monkey. I climbed on the tree very quickly, and my friend Summer asked me how she could climb up too.  I showed her and then the others followed, not only us, but lots of local kids as well. We even helped them get up and down from the tree, because some of them were very little, maybe only 3-5 years old. It was so much fun. I felt like running in a forest and climbing tree and hiking up mountains! I felt so happy and young at heart. This is also one of the reasons why my skin is as dark as a carbon .😎😎😎😎😎 But I have no regrets, I have felt this happy and light-hearted since I was a little girl. For the first time in so many years, I can actually say that I feel happy inside.

The other joyful thing which happened in Beacon Hill Park is that we met three young Japanese students who were in Canada on working visas🎎🎎. They were very friendly. They dressed up in their Kimono and shared Japanese treats with us. We loved trying on clothes from another culture and we are so thankful for this experience.  Their English was about the same level as ours, so we could easily communicate with them. We were all so thankful that we invited them to our farewell party. The girls were headed to Toronto the day before our party, but Zorro, the boy, was around so he came! 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗