Snowboarding @ Whistler!!!

Mid-term break just ended!! *sianz* Well, at least i had a great time going to Whistler for snowboarding and visited the Canadian Rockies!!

Whistler is the best mountain for winter sports in North America and one of the best in the whole world! And because of that, it is freaking expensive!! I paid 155 Cad for the snowboarding package!! It was far more than what i expected!! And not to mention the extra petrol cost as one of my newfound UBC friends, Jonathan, drove us up in his Merc SUV...

On the way to Whistler via Sea to Sky Highway.. U can't even see the peak of the mountains!!
And the clouds are so near us!!

Finally reached! Walking towards the mountains..

Whistler Village @ the foot of the mountains..

Stylish Pontiac!

Queuing for the gondola which brings us up the mountains...

Instructor attire.. They even have travellators on the mountains so that no one has to climb up the slopes!! Guess this contributes to part of the expensive package...

Joel & Zhenni

All geared up for some serious snowboarding!! -lol-

Learning area for noobs

Can't even see the peak even though this is about
mid way up the Whistler mountain!

Our Japanese instructor!!

UBC snowboarding team!!

After our class, Joel and Jonathan came to meet Zhenni and me and brought us up to 3/4 of the Whistler Mountain!! We are not really supposed to snowboard down from there as we are still noobs but i am not gonna leave Whistler without trying after paying so much!!

View of the sun @ 3/4 up the mountain..

View at 3/4 up the mountain..

Jonathan (L) & Joel (R)

The new Whistler gondola design prototype!

Team Canada?? -lol-

Taking a breather while snowboarding down..

According to Joel, 3/4 of the mountain was around 2.2 km above sea level and snowboarding down will cover a distance of about 10 km!! The route down was so challenging and painful!! The number of times i fell on my spine and butt was much more than the number of times i fell in my entire life!!! And some of the slopes were damn steep!! There was this once i fell and a little Caucasian girl ski over and asked me if i was alright!! That was so embarrassing!! Can't even beat a small little girl!! haha.. but it is so common to see small kids as young as ard 5 yrs old who can ski or snowboard so well!! *envious*

Another reason why Whistler is so expensive and a tourist attraction is because it will be holding the Winter Olympic Games in 2010! In other words, i snowboarded on an Olympian mountain!! *gleaming with pride* Would really love to come again if money permits haha...

Anyway, thanks Joel for teaching us some basics of snowboarding while we were waiting for our class to start and also to Jonathan for driving us up!! Too bad we didn't go all the way to the peak because the lift that brings us up is only one way, which means we must snowboard down without any choice. For beginners, that is almost tantamount to suicide i guess... Anyway, it took me about an hr to reach the foot of the mountain!! Jonathan was telling me that Olympic athletes only take about 6-7 mins as they are travelling down at a speed of around 100km/h!! No wonder they have to wear helmets!

Snowboarding is so fun! Love the adrenaline rush, but paid a heavy price for it by suffering from butt, spine and leg aches. My neck was also aching the next day! Shows how snowboarding exercises the entire body.. Next update, the Canadian Rockies!!

First Ice Hockey Match!!

Went for my virgin ice hockey match last Saturday at Pacific Coliseum, home ground of the Vancouver Giants!!

Entering the arena!!

Spectators..

Referees skating stylishly ard the rink just before the match starts..

For the last time i'm warning u, i'm straight!!

I have been watching some ice hockey matches on TV since i reached Vancouver and i thought i had a pretty good idea of how physical the game can get.. However, you don't feel the impact till u actually see the game itself!! And it is so frequent to see players getting heated up and look like they are gonna starting punching each other in the face. The comical thing is that each time a conflict seems to be rising, one of the referees will hurry to the players and stand between them.. Maybe that's why they need so many referees in a small ice rink, to stop fights in case things get out of hand..

During the intervals between the periods, there will be mini competitions or performances to entertain the spectators!! Other than the normal cheerleading (which were that great), there was a smaller scaled hockey match for kids and it is so funny see them all fighting for the puck and falling on their butts as their skating skills are not that good yet. Also, there was this competition whereby u can buy pucks for a dollar and when they commence the competition, everyone start throwing their pucks into the rink and when the time ends, whose puck that reaches the bulls eye in the middle of the rink will win a trip for 2 to Mexico!! Too bad i didn't know what the puck was for when they announced the sales of the pucks. After the competition, there will be a bunch of people hurrying in to clean up the rink!! All these done within the short interval rest!! There was also another competition whereby 2 couples will each try to drag a cheerleader on a sleigh around the ice rink. The one who comes back first wins, thought that was a bit lame haha..

The loser couple for the lame competition.. They lost to an all girls team!!

The winners!

Kiddy Ice Hockey Match!!

Kids taking off their clothes to cheer for the Giants! Sexy!!

Aftermath of puck throwing competiton!!

All in all, the match was pretty interesting to me, and i was actually rooting for the Giants towards the end! Many spectators were cheering and booing and the atmosphere was really quite exciting! They lost in the end haha.. Hmm maybe can start considering going for the Vancouver Canucks game but being a match in the NHL, it's gonna cost a bomb!!

Back to my books, one more test for this week on Friday.. Wish me luck!!

Especially for you, Happy Valentine's Day!! Missing u...=)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Haven't been updating recently.. Well CNY just started and hope everyone is having fun visiting, collecting ang baos and eating all the goodies!! (Though i don't get to collect ang baos and eat cny goodies.. *bleahz*)

This is my first time celebrating CNY overseas without my family and friends back home and i must say though it was not as 'traditional' and 'happening' due to the lack of visiting and maybe even gambling, i still had fun celebrating my first overseas CNY!!

除夕
Went to Chinatown with only Zhenni and Julian as the others were either busy with preparing for mid-term tests or having a long day in school. Cynthia also came to join us for dinner after her first day of work (Congrats Cynthia for your newfound job!). We have been hearing that East Hastings Street at Chinatown was not safe with all the vices and so we avoided that street. However, we still came across this woman who told us to get out of her way while we were crossing the road!! We weren't even in her path in the first place!! That was my first unruly encounter in Vancouver. By the time we reached Chinatown, most of the shops were closed but we came across this shop which i bought almond cookies from, which was of the same brand which i bought from Macau previously! The shop even ignited fire crackers later on which you don't get to see it in Singapore!

Entering Chinatown!!

Shop that set off fire crackers

We had our dinner at this HK restaurant and all of us ordered roasted duck rice with char siew haha.. Oh and we managed to each get a bowl of lotus root soup for 0.75 Cad and it was so good!! The duck and char siew wasn't very good though, still prefer Singaporean roast duck and char siew...

Yummy lotus root soup!!

Group Pic

After dinner, we went to T&T Supermarket which sells Asian stuff! Bought another rounds of groceries again...

Frozen durians anyone?!

After grocery shopping, we could not resist but succumb to our cravings for desserts at True Confections!! It's CNY's eve after all, so we should indulge ourselves!! This time round, we ordered Marble Top Cheesecake and Chocolate Pecan Pie with Vanilla Bean ice-cream. The cheesecake was very normal, not as good as the peanut butter cheesecake we tried previously.. However, the chocolate pecan pie was heavenly.. it almost took my breathe away when it literally melted in my mouth...

Star of the night!

Cakes and pies galore!!

Dessert gluttons..

初一
No holiday from school!! But that won't stop us from enjoying CNY!! Decided to have our cny dinner at one of the Prima Taste restaurants at downtown. Hence after classes, Julian, Zhenni and me headed to downtown and did some window shopping!! Went to this departmental shopping mall called Sears and it has this tourist corner which sells maple syrup in assorted bottles!! Maple syrup is supposed to be the local product of Canada and heard that they really taste good.. Gonna make sure i try them before i leave... After walking around for some time, we came to an Aldo shop (yes, the same Aldo that you see in Singapore) which was having sales! We quickly went in but in the end, only Julian managed to buy a pair of leather shoes at 30+ cad!! I couldn't find anything i like... darn!!!

Back to the future IV?

Vince came to meet us after his lessons and we went to Prima Taste for dinner!! All of us ordered laksa except for Vince, who ordered Hokkien Prawn Noodles. I would say the food was good and probably the best Singaporean cuisine in Vancouver, but it still can't beat the better ones in Singapore!! In addition, the price was exorbitant!! I paid like 10 cad for a bowl of laksa!! And the portion wasn't big.. Well, just for the experience!!

Prima Taste!

Grp Pic

I miss Laksa!!

初二
Gonna have a potluck party at Zhenni's place! Turned out there was too much food in the end! I made sambal prawns and potato soup with tomatoes, onions, tofu and carrots (whatever this soup is called). Zhenni prepared a vegetable dish, Cynthia cooked curry chicken and pork ribs with chili and black beans. Ha prepared Vietnamese spring rolls with fish sauce while Julian prepared asam fish! Corrine, Zhenni's Swiss housemate, prepared fruits and chocolate cream and Danielle brought 2 cakes for desserts!! Haven't had such a sumptuous feast in a long while!! Everything was simply delicious!! Company was good and the desserts were great!! I'm gonna learn how to make chocolate cream from Corrine!! Whoever has not tried eating fruits dipped in chocolate cream deserves to be shot!! haha...

Zhenni "squashing" the tofu, just kidding lol

Yummy soup from my granny's recipe!!

Chef Lionel and his prawns!

Potluckers..

We decided to play Indian poker and the loser has to eat some leftover fruits or cake. And guess what, i lost 3 times!! Grr... Am i just plain unlucky or not smart enough to trust the correct person??

Indian poker commences!

Loser of the night.. sigh..

Bought this ice wine from a nearby liquor store which cost 50 cad!! We have been told that we must try the ice wines in Vancouver so we decided to buy it so that everyone could have a taste! It was expensive but it was good!! Complemented the good food that we ate earlier!! Really felt so sinful eating all the food, chocolate and wine.. CNY wasn't lacking of good food for me after all!!

What is Zhenni trying to do? Be Duck Woman perhaps?

Corrine, the chocolate cream chef!

Me advertising for the ice wine and Zhenni had to spoil it..

The remnants of the party..