It's Snowing in Langley!

I went to Langley tonight to visit an old friend and attend an art gallery opening. My friend Neel's friend's Helene's mother had just opened a spectacular gallery in White Rock, filled with oil paintings and sculptures. My favorite was a painting of a bright green field with a creek, and grass so long and plush, it looked like gently rolling waves on a green sea. We added dots to a painting that is going to be featured in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the highest # of participants (30,000).

A definite highlight of tonight was getting to hold a kitten, AND a baby. The baby was literally shoved in my arms no more than two minutes after I had met it's aunt, while auntie scurried off to do something. It was the most docile, well-behaved baby ever, and didn't seem to care who was holding it, as long as it had a collar or necklace to play with. The kitty was much the same. I MUST have a kitty, or a baby. Preferably both. Jules? ;)

Highlight number two was munching on smoked salmon, crackers, goat cheese and wine while writing haikus in a big book with many blank white pages. Highlight number three: partying in Club Citrus, which my industrious friend remodelled from the ground up. And the last highlight was driving from downtown Langley to North Burnaby in a beautiful snowstorm in 30 minutes flat.

Rock Your Body till Canada Day.

Let's Go To The Mall Today!

I went to the mall with a couple of friends
I had a whole week's allowance to spend
I want hoop earrings and a Benetton shirt
We came here to shop and we came here to flirt
I turned around and who should I see
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
He said, "Young lady, I don't approve."
So I had to get down and bust a tasty move
Hit it Fred, come on
Let's go to the mall

Robin Sparkles Myspace

Beats w/out Borders 2nd Anniversary

That little taste of dubstep last weekend was addictive. I downloaded a bunch of tracks, including this one, which I really recommend. Click to download: Noir/Cyrus/Omen/SgtPokes

Then Martin, Lauren and Kat convinced me to check out this tonite:



I was dragging my heels (only because I'm a homebody who hates driving downtown, and detests finding parking, especially if it involves the PARALLEL variety), but it turned out to be pretty good. When we arrived, there was an east indian dance troop in full costume. Then, Lady Ra spun some really eclectic multicultural beats (including Manu Chao - Bongo Bong), followed by Adrian, who played dubstep-ish stuff with intense bass, that was more up my alley. Next, this amazing violinist played side by side with the DJ for about an hour. I took a bunch of videos, might upload some later. Oh screw it, I'll upload it now. Here it is!!!



Adrian also played this instrument that looked like a bong hooked up to an accordian. Later, a couple people, including Kat's friend (oops I forgot her name) beatboxed and rapped while Tarun played the drums.

The crowd was the most multicultural I've seen in a club.. an outstanding moment for me was watching blonde-haired Lady Ra, who hails from Guelph, mash a celtic, an east indian and a mexican track together, as fully bearded and turban'd Sikhs, Africans, Iranians, Asians, dreadlocked hippie types, and gyrating junglists all danced together. Only in Canada! Here are Martin and Lauren enjoying the sounds (and each other.. aww!):



I can't wait to go back and check out Jewel of India, though. I really liked the dubstep there. PS. The volvo was good tonite.. she held 5 ppl without breaking down! Woo! Good girl.

Pantaloons complete!

Here are the pants I made in sewing class:

Mango Lassi and Dreads

"Dub without tweeter is a little less neater, but dub without sub ain't dub at all." - uttered when the power to the sub was shot

My good ole buddy Martin, along with his friends Sobe, Jovian, Julia and Caitlin, introduced me to this place called Jewel of India in Gastown. I'd never heard of it, nor had I heard of Six Acres, the last cool place he introduced me to. Anyway, upstairs is a restaurant. They serve great East Indian food. And downstairs is a grand fireplace and dark lounge area, filled with hippies and the ILLEST dub music I have ever heard. Listen to this:



Beats without Borders is their name.

: Miss :

I'm a blithering sentimentalist and here's a post I made tonite on Dave's ESL cafe:

I miss Korea too. I was just bitching and whining tonite about missing it, with my friend who got back from 2.5 yrs in Japan.. the nightlife, the cheap entertainment, the social life.. just sitting on the street drinking and chatting, the cool arcade/dvd places, etc.

Luckily I teach at a Korean school here so I get to hear the language, keep my basic phrases fresh, reminisce about Korea with ppl who actually know about it, and be secretly smug to see that THEY are now the 'weigooks' and I am not.

PS. I also miss the sketchy yogwans!!!! And adventures like the evil, sketchy ajumma who tried to kick our asses when we tried to fit 4 ppl in a 1-bedroom 1-closet room! I miss going to Pusan and being drenched all weekend by horizontally raining monsoon! I miss hailing a cab on any block and having them fall over each other trying to get your business! I miss dragging overly inebriated friends home as they make fools of themselves. I miss how all the cab drivers were so naively interested in foreigners, asking the same questions over and over.. (are you married?!). I miss just walking around an uber-bustling downtown, getting lost in a big crowd, and absorbing the stimuli.. I miss trivia nights and how dumb they made me feel, and all the awesome local talent that would perform at thunderbird, communes, ol 55, and the monk jazz club. I miss yanking the kids' chains and telling ridiculous fictitious stories, using their names as characters till they were bawling with laughter. I miss having all the extra work piled on me at my hogwan, because it made me feel needed and productive. I miss all the drama.. hearing the horrific hogwan stories, but seeing ppl overcome it and growing wiser.. I miss living on a bustling, active street where I knew all the shopowners.. I don't miss the incessant noise though. I miss dancing till daylight and walking home on Sunday mornings when the streets were misty and quiet enough to hear the birds, crickets and light rain. I miss being able to jump on the KTX and head to Seoul or Daegu at the drop of a hat. I miss the feisty ajummas who nearly plow over you on their mopeds, and push you aside to walk past you. I really miss Mijung, the best galbi place in Korea, located at Manchon Negori. I miss the commute to school, which was a 30 second jog. I miss the satisfaction of speaking rudimentary Korean and actually being understood well enough to feel confident going anywhere myself..

Ahhhhhh life. The grass is so green on the other side! PS. I'm not drunk. :P

Real Canadian Superstore

Today, after work, I went to Superstore to stock up on baking supplies. It's become a tradition to bake every Christmas. The past few Christmases have been mainly pie-centered. This Christmas, it's time to get a little more daring. I'm planning to make chocolate torte with chocolate ganache, 7-grain bread, a New York Cheesecake, wheat germ cookies, dog biscuits for Lady, and possibly tiramisu. I've already made two rounds of raspberry shortbread squares, which turned out great. There never seems to be any shortage of hungry mouths to bake for.

Anyway, as I got to the milk section at Superstore, a two year old started crying. Temper-tantruming full-out roooooarrrrrrrrrrring. I HATE the sound of kids crying. I think females are programmed to really hate that sound and I'm definitely not an exception. I can feel my breath grow short, my ears try to grow inward, and my uterus permanently shrivel up and die. Ha! The dad hoisted the kid on his shoulders, and they followed me from the milk section to the egg section, and all through the produce section. Roooooooooarrrrrring.

Finally, I ducked into the farthest empty checkout isle with a sigh of relief. With my full cart of $109.62 worth of baking items, surely nobody would dare line up behind me, especially with half a dozen other empty checkout isles and an almost-closing store. But lo and behold, who is hot on my trail? Roaring kid, dad and mom. I glare at my cart as I unload, and feel them watching me, gauging my level of pissed-offness. Then I snap. I look up, wearing my biggest smile and say "Awwwwwww. Is it past his bedtime? He's so CUTE!" Much to my amazement, the kid actually IS super cute, and looks just like his parents. They are all perhaps First Nations... maybe Inuit?

"Haha. No." Dad shakes his head. "He just wants a cookie."

"Aww! Cookie? You want a cookie?" I say to the kid. He looks at me and stops crying. Then he tries to grab my cart, and starts bawling again because he's in his mom's arms and can't reach it.

But now he's only sobbing part time. And the parents, obviously more relaxed now that they have seen evidence their offspring isn't annoying me or the cashier, smile at each other.

"He hasn't learned to hold his breath yet," dad quips. "When I was his age, I learned to hold my breath. Then I got everything I wanted!"

I laugh, say bye to the kid, who has been reduced to a silent wide-eyed statue with a few tears rolling down his face, and walk out in the rain.

Goodbye Halloween, Hello Christmas!

To be completely blunt and honest, things are going very boringly here. The highlights of my weeks are going out to eat, or going out to walk around lakes with Moolz. I've taught one Korean class that inspired me with the same enthusiasm I possessed when teaching classes in Korea. It was a substitute class with 5 energetic kids; one that forced me to answer questions non-stop and wow them with entertaining stories. The rest of my classes are much more boring, consisting of 1 or 2 students.

I've completely lost whatever vision I had for sewing. I have a whole bunch of sewing books sitting on my floor, some almost-finished pants, and a machine on my window ledge. However, without any ambition or idea in my mind of an end goal, sewing just seems laborious and overly intricate.

To continue to occupy my time, I've been busying myself with learning Cantonese via an audio/book course from the public library, and to continue searching the joblists for that perfect, non-existent, high-paying, possibly-but-not-necessarily-career-oriented, hopefully-non-customer-service job. I've even been considering going back to the dreaded eBay until I decide what I want to do, but eBay made me go loopy and hightail it to Korea, so I might as well save myself some trouble, skip the eBay part, and hightail it back to Asia right away. Which I'm trying to avoid doing, since the plan is to settle down in Vancouver and actually make a living in my own country, rather than somebody else's country! On the plus side, things are going swimmingly at the Moolz household. It's SO good to be back, and to see my boy everyday!

Now that I've completely bored you with my trite career mournings, here are some cool pics from the Parade of Lost Souls, which maintained its stellar reputation for having the most amazing costumes. Some of the coolest ones I didn't get pics of.. such as a giant tree spirit from Princess Mononoke.

Here is a group shot of us, minus Pirate Richard, who was buying falafel (my costume is "Recycle Queen"):



A bunch of ninjas, who kept completely in character, running around simultaneously and crouching behind things:



And a very cute lion and Towelly from South Park:



The rest of the pics are on my flickr, as usual.