Two Down, One to Go

The Linguistics final exam is Monday night (I guess that's technically tonight), and I haven't started studying yet...

Christa and I arrived home from Monsoon Restaurant (Asian fusion) on Main Street at 10 o'clock. We've had a full couple of days. On Saturday we cleaned the apartment because I didn't want people to come over for fireworks in the state that the place was in!!! It was a biohazardous disaster area! We managed to both clean and eventually eat, but not without some friendly bickering over chores. Steve Savage had arrived in the afternoon from his stint in Surrey with his first host family while we were at the tail end of our domestic whirlwind. He came by to drop off his backpack before heading off to meet another contact from Olympia, Washington, who was in Vancouver for the weekend. So Steve headed up Burrard Street, and Christa and I headed over for some low-brow chow at Carlos 'n' Buds on Pacific. I'd pulled out the vacuum cleaner, but Christa would have none of it -- she gave me a loud ultimatum, and I wasn't about to argue with her any longer! She was hungry! As for me, earlier I'd taken some bites out of the fantastic birthday cake that she brought home on Friday night from a party in Burnaby, so I wasn't as ravenous.

When we came back, we finished up the apartment, and I was wondering where Tara was... she'd called while we were at Carlos 'n' Buds, and said she was coming over with her sister, but maybe she forgot where the apartment was??? Or got stuck in the crowds coming down to English Bay and gave up?? Anyway, Steve showed up about 10 minutes after the finale started, and Erich and Caroline showed up about 10 minutes after that.

I read the announcement online in the Vancouver Sun that China won, by the way... Canada was a distant third behind the Czech Republic, the Sun reported that Canada had major computer glitches.

Steve crashes hard.

We hung out on the balcony for a while, talking but Erich and Caroline had to go back to Canada Place to get Erich's car, so they didn't stay late. Meanwhile, Wayne, my neighbour from two doors down the hall was picking up stuff from his car, so we invited him for some sangria. We all sat out on the balcony, chatting and drinking, then Wayne called it a night. By this time Steve was almost incomprehensible -- he'd been up since 5:30am, and could barely keep his eyes open. Christa was feeling crappy from the weather change (too windy), so she was ready to hit the sack. So I was the last one standing at 2am!

Christa set up her rolling bed by the closet, and I dragged Steve off to my bed and slept on the couch, since I'm the shortest (which Christa often points out, but in reality it's by probably less than an inch).

Morning came all too quickly, but we all finally got ourselves moving and showered and dressed to head off to Horseshoe Bay, which was flat out busy. Steve was taking the ferry to Nanaimo, and we barely had time to order food for him before he had to make a run for the ramp. We quickly said our goodbyes, and Christa and I remained to finish our brunch.

Auntie Fely

Then it was off to Stanley Park, where there was a BIBAK picnic, and Christa experienced her largest gathering of Filipinos ever.

I met my cousin Marlow for the first time in nearly 20 years, and I think she was quite shocked at the beginning, trying to reconcile her memories of a 12-year old kid with a now-31 year old. Some aunts were there, and Melissa was happy to see her Attie Gail. Dad wanted to take them sightseeing (cousin Mishael's wife was also there, visiting from Penticton, but I can't for the life of me remember her name), so I suggested we park the Jeep at my place and go to Granville Island.

Granville Island

That we did -- a nice wander around the so-called Island, some ice cream, and the requisite photo-taking. They headed home after 7 o'clock, and that was when Christa and I headed off to fill our tummies.

So, here we are again, one last all-nighter before a few weeks of no assignments, papers, or exams!