Canada: Victoria & Vancouver

My apologies for the long lag-time between the two posts. I started work and now whenever I get home I'm usually busy getting dinner ready and then just wanting to relax. With the time lapse, I may also have forgotten some fun details.

Victoria

Our cruise dropped us off at Victoria. The cruise was actually going to continue its trip down south to Seattle, but we disembarked early to stay with my aunt Heidi and her three children. She had found a great discounted deal at one of the hotels in Victoria, so instead of going straigh to Vancouver, we stayed the night. This was the first time I got to meet my three cousins, which was fun--they're crazy.

When I visited their room in the hotel for the first time, Heidi told her son MacKenzie, "You see him? That's what you're going to look like when you grow up!" Apparently, he bears an uncanny resemblance to me when I was younger and he also has an aversion to eating, as I did at his age (hard to believe now). The next day was packed: visit Salaam, tour the parliament building, check out the British Columbia museum, and catch a ferry to Vancouver.

It was a wonderful treat to be able to meet Salaam. Salaam is the daughter of Umm (Mother) and Abu (Father) Salaam who were my host parents in Jordan. She works at the Empress Hotel, a very famous Victorian institution that's been around almost as long as the parliament building has been, in the private lounge area. She was kind enough to serve us some sweets and pastries along with coffee and tea. We had a good solid 30 minutes together, reminiscing about her mother's cooking. Turns out that I was staying in her sister Tamara's room, whereas Alex stayed in her room. It was lovely meeting her and I've sent a photo that we took together to Tamara to bring with her to her parents in Amman at the end of the month.

The parliament building was interesting because everything seemed very majestic with stained glass and different crests and shields hanging on the walls and embedded in the windows. The opposite of what I think of when I imagine Canada! We learned about the formal etiquette--to be expected of the British--and how to Queen goes through the formalities when visiting parliament in session. The British Columbia museum, which was right next door, was actually quite good. There were staff stationed at different exhibits who would explain things to you and let you handle things like tortoise shells and whale baleen. We also watched an imax film about chimps and elephants "displaced" by deforestation or poaching being adopted by rehabilitation organizations. Narrated by Morgan Freeman--go figure.

The ferry ride was almost 45 minutes...more time on the water...gotta love it. Upon arrival we went straight to dinner and I was VERY happy with the food. I hadn't had authentic asian food in a long time. We had great Cantonese dishes that tasted just like home!

Vancouver

The next day we had dimsum for breakfast--oh yeah! We dropped by the fisherman's warf and bought some seafood and also went to the cannery museum. The museum was all about the fish canning industry with a great guided tour. I sense a trend here. Canada is good at museums. We learned about the poor working conditions, racism against Asians, and the horrible sanitation in relation to the whole enterprise. Next, we took a trip to the public market, basically ten times better than Eastern Market. It was on the waterfront with great street musicians and anything from boutique chocolates to butchers. For dinner, one of my mom's cousins, Ryan, who I've known for quite a while, and his new wife and stepson were able to visit. It was great seeing him and catching up--he became a Christian a few years ago and it was refreshing seeing his passion for Jesus.

Our last day in Vancouver, we visited my mom's old university Simon-Fraser! That was cool, although my mom had no idea where anything was anymore because the campus had changed so drastically since the last time she visited. We got to visit a re-enactment town of how Canadians lived back in the day. Surprisingly, they lived like everyone else! I got a $8 haircut--got to take advantage of cheap haircuts when you can! In the evening, a number of my mom's cousins from her dad's side came and visited for dinner. My mom hadn't seen these cousins for decades! So it was cool meeting that side of the family as we tend to see my grandmother's side more often since they're all still in the Philippines.

Wrap-Up

I've started work now at ISOA as a communications associate. This job is temporary, but full-time; keeping me busy until I find a permanent position somewhere that will fulfill my Boren requirements. My birthday is today...And yes, I'm getting notifications every few minutes of people posting on my Facebook wall. I'll be having a small little birthday get-together tonight, just AJ, Sammy, and I--some steak and (blueberry) wine. Yes, blueberry wine. Who's ever heard of that? My mom got it while she was in Canada and had it shipped to me for my birthday. Thanks mom! We'll be opening a bottle and trying some over dinner.

My next scheduled time of travel won't be until August, for the Goggin wedding. Although there is a slight possibility I may go with some CHBC folk to go canoeing/kayaking at Harper's Ferry in Virginia!

Alaskan Cruise

I'm afraid that I had very little internet access and little time to post while I was traveling. But now that I'm back, I'll be retroactively posting about what went on the past two weeks.

Ketchikan

Our first stop was in Ketchikan. We took a touring boat through the waterways, around various islands, and into the Misty Fjords. The Misty Fjords were incredible! Fjords are waterways that have been carved by glaciers and the Misty Fjords consisted of steep, snow-peaked mountains of granite. Rivers of glacial water of varying sizes flowed down the sides; however, because some slopes were almost perpendicular to the waterways down below, they sometimes functioned as waterfalls. The clouds were so low that they hugged the mountains. All over these granite behemoths were trees growing almost straight out of the rock, growing off the moss instead of soil. We also saw a number of eagles on the ride there.

Juneau

The day after, we took the inner passage route to head up to Juneau. On the way, a detour in the Tracy Arm Fjord occupied us in the morning hours. We woke up to small icebergs floating all around the ship, colored a magnificent blue--the kind of color you see in those National Geographic magazines covering cold places. We saw our first glacier up close! Then we turned around, left the fjord, and landed in Juneau later that morning. We got on a bus and took a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier, a gigantic blue beast. Learned a little about how glaciers form and fjords are created. But this was just the appetizer. We took another sight-seeing boat and went out searching for some whales--and what whales we saw! At one point, there were 10 or so humpback whales in our view, and some orca whales got within 50 yards of our boat. It was incredible. Apparently they don't usually see so many, with orca whale sightings being very infrequent. On our return, we passed by sea lions bathing in the sun.

Skagway

Our last port-of-call in Alaska was Skagway. To be honest, there wasn't much to do there. We took a tour bus up into Yukon, Canada and saw the White Pass, a route that many gold rush miners took to enter the territory. It was the most snow we saw all trip. The Yukon Suspension Bridge was also anticlimactic because it wasn't very long and it didn't lead anywhere, just gave people with fear of heights a difficult time. The excursion concluded with a salmon bake with hollandaise sauce. I ate my fill.

Life on the Cruise

Eat, read, sleep, and play mahjong--the four components of a relaxing cruise. Although the eating part wasn't necessarily a time of ease. We had buffets for breakfast and lunch, as much as you can eat sit-down dinners. For those of you who know my blogging, it usually ends up being mostly about food. However, I will spare you the details other than the fact that we didn't get too much seafood unfortunately. Although we did get a lot of steak and lamb.

I was able to complete three books while on the cruise: Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Islamic Fundamentalism (John Calvert), Great Asian Power Strategy (Bailey), and Morality and Architecture Theory (Watkin). I started a fourth book on clan politics in Central Asia, but was unable to finish it before the May 31st deadline when all books had to be returned to Gelman Library. Calvert gets the accolade of best written, and Watkin gets most fascinating.

I will be posting about Canada in a separate post to come.

Traveling again!

As some of you know, I'll be doing some post-graduation traveling, which means this blog will be finally updated again. Destinations will be Michigan, Seattle, Alaska, and Vancouver, over the course of two weeks. I will not have my laptop with me, but I hope to be able to update this occasionally (the Alaskan cruise won't have free internet).

Jonathan Edwards, by George Marsden

Last night, I finally finished George Marsden's Jonathan Edwards: A Life, a landmark Edwards biography that currently holds the unofficial recognition as the standard, go-to account of his life. What made it a great read was not only the fact that Marsden is a Reformed Christian himself, but also he did not avoid observations that are irreconcilable with contemporary mindsets, particularly when speaking of the Native American mission. You can also tell he put a lot of time into the writing itself because it is filled with memorable quotes and great sentences. Coming in at 505 pages (hardcover copy), this volume took a while to digest, but was well worth it.

My only critique was that it seemed hard to discern at times how much of an impact certain events had. It may be the fault of this reader, but for example, his descriptions of the Great Awakening at the end made me assume that it was not as "Great" (as in large) as I thought, but later Marsden would point to the incredible ripples that the Awakening caused.

I thought it would be nice to post some of the quotes that I wrote down:

Seldom has there been a spiritual discipline where so much effort was put into recognizing the worthlessness of one's own efforts. (28)

Calvinist saints never sailed long on smooth waters with steady spiritual winds. (108)

The inflated human ego was the devil's playground, and in revival times his favorite ploy was to simulate evangelical experience. (289)

Later he [Brainerd] had learned…to recognize his recurrent illness not as spiritual desertion but occasion for true humiliation and godly sorrow. (332)

Christ is the bridegroom who is bringing his bride, the church, into a creature's fullest possible experience of trinitarian love. (488)

Edwards spent his whole life preparing to die. (490)

God's purpose in creating a universe in which sin is permitted must be to communicate that love to creatures. The highest or most beautiful love is sacrificial love for the undeserving…They will not be able to view Christ's love dispassionately but rather will respond to it with their deepest affections. Truly seeing such good, they will have no choice but to love it. (505)

March 20: Church, Syrians, Empanadas

Good Bye Iglesia!
Second and last Sunday at Timo's church. This time around I didn't know any of the hymns we sang, but it was still fun to sing in Spanish even though I had no idea what I was saying except for the occasional Spanish word that resembled English. Timo said that the sermon was really good, so I trust that Pastor Omar "killed it" (CO language). I usually spend the time memorizing Ephesians since I don't understand anything in the sermon. I met a US citizen at the church today, who was from Pennsylvania, but was married to a Chilean and had moved to Santiago last September. Timo got down his contact information so they can bond over mixed-culture relationships.

Syrians!
So, I met a guy at the church named Yusuf last Sunday, but he didn't speak any Arabic. At the end of the conference, I met his dad, who was from Syria! It was very random that the person I communicated best with during my stay in Chile, other than Timo, was in Arabic with a Syrian immigrant who married a Chilean. I saw him again at church this Sunday and it was fun just practicing Arabic. It's been difficult not to automatically go into Arabic as my foreign language mode when I speak with Chileans, so it was nice to let go and just speak Arabic and have someone understand me! Sadly, I've realized how much Arabic I've lost already, and I was oftentimes grasping for vocabulary and conjugations that I should have remembered. He was really nice and his family has an awesome testimony of how they came to the Lord.

Empanadas
We had empanadas from a local bakery in the neighborhood for lunch. Connie came with Pablo back from church and we bought them and had them together. I think one of the things I will miss about Chile is the easy access to wine and having it with almost every meal! Quite a luxury. Afterwards, we sat around in the living room chatting, but since I didn't understand anything going on, I slowly drifted in and out of the dreamworld.

Return to Gringolandia!
I will be returning to the land of gringos tomorrow morning and will spend most of the day in transit, with a flight transfer in panama city. I'll be arriving late at night and will be taking the SuperShuttle back to the Dojo for a good night of sleep to be awake for a busy day of playing catch-up. I think I will miss Chile, it's such a great country and I really enjoyed my time here. Timo has been a wonderful host and I seriously wore him out with the non-stop touristy excursions, but he's served me very well despite the tiring schedule.

Good bye blog, until my next travels (most likely after graduation)!

March 19: Shopping and Asado.

Souvenir Shopping

I couldn't possibly leave Chile without getting some souvenirs! In the morning, we headed back to Santa Lucia, around which there is a mini-bazaar of sorts with dozens of shops selling T-shirts, bags, plates, mugs, and other items with "Chile" or "Santiago" emblazoned all over them. There were so many options! Problem was that whenever I found a T-shirt I liked, they wouldn't have my size. I ended up buying a T-shirt and three mugs: one with a colorful imprint of Valpo on it, and the other two with indigenous Chilean symbols. The mugs are going to be gifts (except the Valpo one). I also need to remember to buy Super8, which is a chocolate wafer bar that Josh Rivera wanted me to get for him.

Chilean BBQ: Asado

On our way to the BBQ, known as an "asado" in Chile, we picked up a friend of Timo's from Mexico who is studying for her Master's in Santiago. The asado was hosted at a friend's house. The asado started off with some appetizers comprised of saltine crackers and chips with a white dip and a slab of cream cheese sprinkled with sesame seeds and doused in soy sauce. I must say that the cream cheese + sesame + soy sauce = scrumptious. I definitely need to try that combo in the US. After the appetizers began the meat!

We started with a traditional Chilean hotdog, placed in some nice bread, and spread with a tomato-onion-cilantro mix. Then some beautifully marinated chicken drumsticks. All the while, our food was accompanied with Chilean red wine and pisco sour. After an hour or so, the main course came out--beef ribs and pork. Sides included salad and corn. You know that it's good BBQ when the pork isn't dry, since pork tends to either be undercooked or devoid of all succulent juices. The beef just fell off the bones and were perfectly cooked at medium/medium-well. We topped it all off with some coffee and tea. By this time, it was already 4pm or so.

I was informed that asados tend to go into the night. When someone invites you to an asado, expect to be there until what would amount to dinner time in the US. Because Chileans don't usually eat dinner--they eat an evening snack consisting of breakfast-like foods of bread, avacado, etc.--I guess they don't mind taking their sweet ol' time when it comes to munching on lunch. By the time we left, it was about 5:30pm!

Meeting Folks

At the asado, I got to meet a number of Timo's friends. I met the Coopers, who are a British-Argentinian couple that attend the Anglican church that Timo used to attend. What was cool was that Ryan Cooper had lived around Adams Morgan for a year in 2008 or so, and they had visited CHBC! They found their church home at Church of the Advent during their stay. I also got to hang out a little more with Connie, who I mentioned earlier, and Bekah.

Bekah is a Californian who loved Chile so much that she decided to move here! She's also part of the Anglican church, but what's fascinating about her is that she's Jewish (both her parents have Jewish backgrounds and her dad works at the Jews for Jesus HQ) with a degree in urban missions from Westminster Seminary. She had spent three months doing missions work with Israelis: one month backpacking in India with a group of ex-military men and two months in Tel Aviv. We had a good time bonding over common experiences in the Levant and an educational conversation about dispensationalism, replacement theology, and covenant theology. Since she was well-versed in the theology behind missions to Jewish people, she had a lot of insight to give.

Another As

Around 10pm, after a number of hours looking at old photos with Timo, we got the munchies when we came upon a picture of Josh Rivera eating an as. Pablo, Timo, and I got dressed and went to the same eating joint, which was only a 10 minute walk away, and I got my second as, but this time it was huge. The previous one was a regular, manageable size. I almost didn't finish this one!

March 18: Vineyard, Tourist Fail, Walk-a-Lot.

Concha y Toro
Apparently Concha y Toro is a famous wine brand, which I did not know about. But we took the metro out to the southern-most station, took a small bus to a vineyard, and signed up for the tour and wine-tasting. The vineyard was owned by Concha y Toro, the name of the original founder/family, and also the location of the first Concha y Toro vineyard. We signed up for an English-speaking tour, so the group was smaller, with only ten people or so, including us. The tour started with a documentary video about Concha y Toro, which was fascinating because of all the history behind the brand. We were taken first to the home of Concha y Toro, now an office used mainly for administrative functions. The landscaping was Victorian, with large ponds, nice rolling grasslands, and even sheep. We then went to a terrace that had a good view of the vineyard, followed by our first wine-tasting. It was a Trio--a mixture of three different types of white wine. I loved following the instructions of the tour guide, it made me feel so pretentious. "Swirl the wine in your glass to allow the wine to breath...now smell it and you will be reminded a little of apricots, pine nuts, and some of you may get a sense of peach...now take a sip and make sure all of your mouth gets a taste...now swallow and you will get an after-taste similar to that of eating a lemon."

What was even more pretentious was walking around for the rest of the next segment of the tour sipping on the wine. We got to see the storage space where all the barrels are kept and entered the famed Casillero del Diablo. This cellar was where Concha y Toro kept his best wine and started the legend that the devil lurked in its shadows in order to keep the locals from stealing. It's now a universally recognized wine. Afterward, we had our second and last wine tasting of a red wine, which was really good. We got to keep our wine glasses afterward as a souvenir. Visiting vineyards always makes me want to become a connoisseur!

Panqueque Lunch
Timo took me to one of his favorite food joints in Santiago. It's not traditional Chilean in any sense of the word, but was very good. A thin pancake was used to wrap a bunch of stuffing and cheese, soaked in some type of milk, and baked like a lasagna. The restaurant is a small hole-in-the-wall, so you wouldn't expect it to be too good, but it was actually fantastic! I will have to have a top foods ranking when I wrap up the blog for this trip.

Cerro San Cristobal
This was a major fail. Pablo, Timo's brother, met us in downtown Santiago and we headed to Cerro San Cristobal, which is a hill near Santa Lucia, but much larger and with a massive statue of the Virgin Mary on top. When we got there, the gates were shut and a lot of Chilean students were milling around. The guard on duty informed us that the place had been shut down because the students had been too roudy partying and it was difficult to get them out. Moreover, the place might not even open the next day either! This was a very sad disappointment, but we took the opportunity to walk around Providencia.

Providencia, Las Condes
Providencia is where Timo's old church is located, so the neighborhood was pretty familiar to him. It's also a popular shopping district with nice, upscale shops and brandnames. The walk to Providencia was exhausting under a blazing sun in a cloudless sky. A break was a must. We took shade in a Starbucks nearby and caught our breath before continuing this walking tour. Eventually we entered Las Condes, which is the richest neighborhood in Santiago with Western shops and restaurants everywhere (including Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, etc.). I also got to see the US embassy, housed in an older building.

Nuts and Nuts and Gyros
Nuts and Nuts is sweet-covered peanuts. The company was started in the US by a Chilean, who eventually brought it to the motherland. There are small Nuts and Nuts stands on the streets and we happened upon one in Providencia. I took advantage of this Chilean experience and found them to be a nice snack. We had dinner at a gyros joint where the owner knows Timo since he goes there so often. They also had Kuntsmann, a Chilean beer, on tap, which I also availed myself to. The Kuntsmann was good and tasted a lot like Yuengling. The gyros were very large--I made a mess.