Whistler, Anyone?

It's been a good while and I am glad to be back! Checked on the stat recently and was surprised that my blog got viewed quite a bit from people in Russia.

Hello, Russia! :)

Lots went on in the past six days. Firstly, I added an experience of visiting Las Vegas, which I will talk about later tomorrow I hope. Secondly, I was back with catching up with some piano practice yesterday after not playing for three days -big deal, eh? Thirdly, today was the final piano recital! Hungarian Dance No. 5, the piece that I played today, flew pretty smoothly and got complimented by the teacher. She said that I played as well as she did, and this flattered me. I was also the only one in the room that actually didn't get any input because I did my piece well (read: with no mistakes). Despite being nervous, I didn't miss a single note and hit all of them at the right timing. I paid attention on the dynamics: when to hold the notes, play staccato, do legato, change the flow from andante to vivace, and so on and so forth, thanks to Ms. Bennett who has made me more aware of all of those. I actually got one twist at the end of the piece (which I was a bit unhappy about) but it was very minor that teacher didn't actually count it. It was such a relief that the pressure's finally over!

Oh, fourthly, I ate a piece of doughnut at the recital. It was chocolate-coated and was delicious. Ms. Moreland's treat, by the way. And funny thing was I didn't quite remember when I had my last doughnut before this one. Must have been a while ago. Last and of the least of importance, I hit the gym after the recital. Oops, I got another one to mention here. Made Indonesian fried noodle for dinner and it turned out yummy.

I reckon I better stop all the rambling since I start forgetting what the theme of this entry should be. I was going to talk about my trip to Whistler and Vancouver, BC back in May 2009. Speaking of Canada, I stumbled into a situation at the recital today, of which I thought was a bit funny. Well, I realize it's no secret that Canadians in general (not all, of course) are not really into Americans. So this girl happened to be wearing an *eminem hat with Canadian maples on it (you know, the winter hat normal people wear. I call it the *eminem hat cuz Eminem wears it a lot). And a young chap in class named Neil started asking her if she was hating the rest of them. Just thought it was funny because I could have really said a lot to them, being surrounded by Canadians, who pretty much act like ones. But I didn't want to speak for others really, nor did I want to lit the fire. Ain't gonna take the responsibility for it :D.

Back to Whistler, Mate!

Breakfast with the Lims

That Whistler trip was officially meant to visit Glen's friends and their family. We drove over eight hours northbound. This was one of the rare trips on which we drove. Our typical would be going up to Seattle; a three-hour drive, which isn't bad. Vancouver, BC takes twice as long to get to for us and Whistler is near to triple but since I'd never been there, so what the heck. I think at first Glen had a thought of skiing, but for some reason he didn't end up doing it. Yes, Whistler is well-known for its ski resorts and was a home to the Paralympic games in Winter 2010. They were actually fixing things up at the time we were there. It was quite neat, I tell ya. This was the first time as well that I ever set foot in Canada and rode a gondola so my excitement prevailed.

Whistler resembles a little village with a lot of neat shops. It would be a heaven for you who loves both skiing and shopping, in short. The snow was abundant in May that year, but surely not overwhelming. Bonus was that the temperature didn't drop that much so I still got to wear a pair of capri. We spent the whole time there with the Lims: walking out in the village, chilling, and dining. They own a condo up in Whistler; it is a two-story, has two bedrooms and one bathroom. They also have a piano for the kids to practice while they spend some leisure time in Whistler. Very nice concept of a vacation home, isn't it? I would want something like that. Not Whistler though, it would possibly be in Bali in a twenty five year time-frame. Yeah, if I get to live that long. Otherwise, I'll leave this blog as a legacy of mine before then. >.<

Upon entering Whistler village

I got to taste decent Chinese (Cantonese) food in Whistler too -thanks to the Lims- and I gotta say that it was pretty good. I even brought some leftover fried rice with me to the Lims' place and ate it for breakfast the next morning. It's not like the typical greasy, fake Chinese food that most Americans eat, by the way (not that sweet orange chicken that's probably packed with ten tablespoons of sugar, if you know what I mean). Vancouver BC is apparently one of the homes to the authentic Chinese delicacies in North America.

Some dance we came across in downtown Vancouver

Downtown Vancouver

We only got a day to spend in Vancouver BC while on our stop-over, and apparently had too miss the many interesting sites in the surrounding areas. Wished I could have visited the Victoria's Butchart Garden, which in particular I had set eyes on. Well, better luck next time! :)