Cultural entertainment

Fortunately, wallowing in self-pity was not the only thing that I did throughout February.
Lina was celebrating her 25th birthday with a friend and invited over a lot of people from the Vancouver couchsurfing community...most of them I know myself. While eating delicious meals, snacks and birthday cakes I made some more concrete plans with Lina as well as Tom (England) and Krysten (California) to go on our hike on Vancouver Island in May. Hopefully this is going to work.
I also decided to make February the month of cultural entertainment, starting with the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival where I went to the opening event with a bunch of outdoorsy couchsurfers. The whole evening included a presentation by Timmy O'Neill, one of the world's most talented and weirdest climbers who was also surprisingly funny in his stand-up comedy show in which he showed us images of his latest climbing trips on five continents.

Another guest was Brian Smith, the outdoor adventure filmmaker of National Geographic who offered us one interesting inside look into the production and filming of outdoor documentaries including the bravery you need to follow the adventurers on their activities.
After the presentations we were shown a series of short outdoor movies about mountaineering and kayak adventures.
http://vimeo.com/11687571
By the end we were filled with a decent amount of impressions that on the other hand didn't really help to cheer me up about my failure to join a road trip to Alaska.
However, the next cultural event is supposed to be a play by the Granville Island Stage: "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?". I read the book by Edward Albee and when I found out that there would be a play in Vancouver, I began asking my friends to join me and bought the tickets. I will most definitely tell you about my impression but can already tell that the trailer looks pretty promissing!

Another event will be my first Canucks game (GO, Canucks, GO!). For all my friends in Europe who are not into Hockey: this is Vancouver's NHL team and currently on top rank, waiting for the play-off season that will start April 13 to crush the other teams and win the Stanley Cup. I have been told that while the play-offs are going on, Vancouver's streets are abandoned because everyone is watching TV at home or in a pub. There is no other activity that could possibly lift Canadian butts off the couch at that time!

Apparently, I soon will be part of the euphoria to watch the game against Nashville together with Carmen (btw the tickets were Rob's Christmas gifts to us).
It is a matter of course that I am still attending my Wushu lessons and I can proudly tell that I am improving.
Other sports activities so far have been:

• hiking Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver, the some trail that I already hiked last summer led by the Viking globetrotter Eris (forgot to mention that Anna and me met him on the way to Seattle airport on our way trip to Hawaii). This time I have been hiking with Carmen and Richard, a German couchsurfer who crashed on our couch at that time. It's incredible how dramatically the rain forest changes in Winter; everything is so wide open. 

• indoor rock climbing at the Cliffhanger gym. I haven't been climbing since last summer and therefore was pretty stoked to go. At the Mountain Film Festival some of the couchsurfers suggested to go soon which we did. Was a good feeling to be back on the wall.

 At midnight on February 23 right after we returned from yoga, my roomies Carmen, Rob and our long-term couchsurfer Nicole surprised me with a birthday cake and a present - a mambo hat.

I celebrated my birthday two days later with a brunch at our house and even though the invitation to my friends came pretty much on short notice, a lot of them showed up. From 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon sat around the table eating constantly and just had a good time. 

 We also went to several house parties around the city or had fun in the ANZA Club, listened to live Brazilian drum music and enjoyed the sounds of DJ Oker (http://www.facebook.com/notes/oker-chen/earcandy-xx/10150133322604120).

My conclusion for February: A perfect mix of entertainment, sports, parties and fun! Hopefully, the month of March will be full of road trips and adventures... .

North - Part I

Back to Vancouver I was again - like last summer - trying to figure out what to do and where to go. Since the beginning of my trip one thought didn't get out of my head: going to Alaska!
Influenced by one of my favorite movies - "Into the Wild" - the urge to go up north through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory grew and grew and is currently screaming from within me to follow its call!

First big problem: you need a car to go on a road trip; a car that I still don't have - despite my original plans to get one as soon as I would find a job.


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When it is about going to Alaska there is not really an alternative to a vehicle.
Hitchhiking - as I did in the Rockies - could be problematic, especially when you don't get a ride and have to spend the nights "in the wild" coping with temperatures that wouldn't be comfortable any longer.
Going on a greyhound bus would mean spending a lot of money without necessarily getting to the places I might wanna see.
And the railway tracks finally end at Prince Rupert, halfway through British Columbia at the coast close to the islands of Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands); still over 2,000 km away from Alaska. 
Considering all this and the fact that I don't have enough money to buy a car and go on a road trip up north, there was just one possibility left: finding someone to join on a trip. That was exactly what I was trying to achieve through the better part of February...unfortunately with only a moderate extent of success. In other words: I was almost giving up on that dream...almost!

 To be continued...