[r] Canada Story(2): First day at UBC

I planned my days off to be Aug. 11 to Aug. 22. The first and last days would be in Seattle, and the eight days in between would be in the lovely north neighbor country. All the routine stuff went smoothly, soon my travel case was filled up with everything: visa, sleeping bag, air bed, tripod, cowboy apparel, ......

The day of Aug. 11 came finally, that noon at Cheese Cake Factory in the basement of John Hancock[*], people in lab held a farewell luncheon for Chrissie's leaving, Derek's vacation to California, Tiffany's vacation to Minnesota and my vacation to Canada. In the best wishes I left Chicago at five.

Made a connection at Salt Lake City and arrived Seattle at midnight. It was really a hot night, the temperature, together with my excitement, made me twisting around on the hostel bed and fell sleep till two.

Morning came. After a short walk along the nearby Pike Place Market[#], I went to the airport, picked up my powerful horse -- a Chevy Equinox SUV, and started going north. Blue sky, white clouds and a not-packed highway #5 then became the scene, together with Dido's White Flag:

And when we meet Which I'm sure we will
All that was thereWill be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think That I've moved on....

All those made the 120-mile trip delightful and easy. At 5, the knight and his horse were already at UBC campus. Time for surprise! Push open the door of apartment 3301, Wei's familiar smiley face showed up again: "Supper is ready."

This was the first time I got to Canada, UBC, and the Thunderbird residential hall. But anywhere with an old friend was not strange. Around the table, we talked a lot about life in North America, the old days in the city of Chengdu, and our friends. I also made a new friend, Ran, who was going to begin her Ph.D. in economics. After dinner, three of us walked to beach, sat there till sunset. We talked and laughed a lot at that time. Though most of the contents already couldn't be remembered, the scene became one of my best memories.

[*] Second highest skyscraper in the City of Chicago, which has a nice observatory for the city and the lake.
[#] The crowded but pretty nice market started since 1907.