Up to date! (kinda)

We went to Victoria twice, and I got these next photos on our second trip. It was on July 17. This was after I checked out the University of Victoria. I am getting very keen on going to UVic. It is a medium-sized University, there are many dorms, it is a beautiful campus, and it is in Victoria, which is a really nice city. I am going to apply there as soon as I can. They have the programs and the atmosphere that I am looking for.
There was a market on one of the main streets, and this guy was selling hand carved woodwind instruments. He is a musician and he can play each one well. Here he is showing Barnabas how to play the didgeridoo.
Me playing the didgeridoo. It's a lot harder than I imagined. You have to pucker your lips when you blow into it, like a trumpet, but your lips are inside the tube and in order to make the sound you have to make your lips vibrate. That in itself is not that challenging, but in order to change the pitch you have to move your tongue back and forth inside your mouth as you blow.
There was a stall selling masks like this one.
nearby there was a giant chess set that Barnabas and I played a game on. He won by checkmate. Then we went to Starbucks.
There was a Mexican-Canadian culture event going on and this guy was wearing a big sombrero.
I got tie-dye socks at the market!
On thursday, July 16, we went to a place called the Romper Room to learn how to belay in rock climbing! Evan and I did the course, and it was a lot of fun. Now I can belay people.
On the 18th, Junko, Barnabas, and I went to see Junko's friend Wes. He had a party and I met several of their friends. Rob and Jada, Dave and Alice, and Wes were there. I like that group a lot. They are all real people. Earlier that day I went bungee jumping. I have pictures on my camera but I can't find my camera! aargh! We know for sure that it is in the house, but we can't find it anywhere. I do, however, have a video of my jumping off the bridge. The first 28 seconds are advertising the place, but you should watch the whole thing because it says how big the drop is. That was Junko's early birthday present to me. She is so freaking nice.

Two days after bungeeing, I got to do the "King Swing" with Barnabas! The King Swing is what it sounds like, a giant (two seater) swing. The bridge that I jumped off for bungee jumping is the same one that you get pushed off of for the King Swing. Here's how it works:
They saddle you up in tight harnesses
You sit on the edge of the bridge, and they push you off. For the first several second you are in freefall off the edge, like bungee jumping while sitting down.
About 3/4 of the way down to the water the slack picks up and you swing forward.
You continue to ascend quite high, then come back again.
After a while a man on a boat comes by and brings you down, unstrapping you.
I didn't get a video of it because they don't provide that service for the king swing, but it was just about as thrilling as bungeeing.
I yelled for about the same amount of time as I did bungeeing.

OK. So here's the deal. It is late and I have some more things to do, and this is the last night I am staying at Barnabas and Junko's. Instead of typing more, which I do enjoy, I am going to stop and wait to tell my stories with the pictures at home. If I don't live with you, I will see you soon and show you then. I wish I could truly get up to date, but I don't have time.

Here is the latest -- Tomorrow at 11, Junko's friend Wes is going to do my hair. Junko is going to drive me to Wes', then bring me home for my last guitar lesson. That's right, guitar lesson! A guy named Dave Hart lives down the street. He is a fantastic guitarist and a friend of Bobby's. Junko has been paying for Dave to teach me, mainly theory. In 8 lessons so far, I have learned SO MUCH. He has provided me with a whole bunch of learning material, and I've gotten to play his guitars. He has a cool studio and for a lot of the time he would set me up with a backing track that I would play over based on my knowledge of scales, keys, modes, etc. It is a good feeling when you kind of know what you are doing!
It is swelteringly hot right now.
After my lesson, we will get ready and travel to Vancouver to see Junko's parents. I am excited to meet them, they seem very cool. After a few days in Vancouver, I will leave and come home.
The end of this trip seems to have come up abruptly, but I think most of it is that I am not totally ready to leave.

Last important points
Evan and I did a two hour introduction to Scuba diving. We went about 20-25 feet in the water off of neck point. Muy muy fun. Bobby has undeveloped water proof camera pictures that will probably be mailed later.
Me being hot, uncomfortable, and weighed down (the gear is >100 pounds)
yet really happy!

I painted one of my shoes
The colors go with my tie dye socks. Those are the ones I got in Victoria. They have new laces now that I colored with fabric markers. I have been meaning to color the other one, which I may do tonight. Originally I decided to keep the other one brown, but I would like to color it. Another thing on my plate.
I also tie dyed my own shirt, which I am wearing right now. I did the dyeing this morning. I did a spiral one, and pair of socks, and a randomly dyed tee shirt. They turned out well.

Junko, Dave, me, Barnabas, and Alice went tubing, but this time the kind of tubing where you get pulled by a speedboat. We meant to water ski as well, but the skis were too small for my feet.

Barnabas and Junko bought me an electric guitar!
It astounds me how lucky I am. I just hope that Junko and Barnabas and Mom and Dad can see how truly grateful I am for this experience.
This summer has allowed me to grow in many ways.
The guitar is beautiful in both sound and appearance. The guy who Dave recommended I see at the music store is named Adam. He was very helpful and patient. The guitar is a Hagstrom D2H and it was on sale - half off. At first I didn't think it looked that great, but it has grown on me. Here is a picture of it online.
I have decided to name it Pablo.

I worked for Bobby once, as a dinosaur named Benny, the Nanaimosaurus. It was hot outside, and boiling inside. My face was a waterfall of sweat.
It was a good experience, though.
The event was something called the Silly Boat Regatta. A bunch of companies built makeshift boats that raced. It was neat. I have more pictures but I don't really have any more time.

Thank you everyone.

July 7th - July 12

On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (I think) after surfing, I spent most of my time at Bobby's house because she was paying Evan and I to do some housework. I think they are moving so they are trying to make the house ready for selling. The room that we worked on is they're "rec room" sort of place. They had glued and nailed soundproofing to the walls (Evan plays drums, Dane is a DJ) and we had to take it down and stack it. Then we scraped the excess gunk off the walls and washed off the glue. Then we filled the holes in the walls and it is ready to be painted. I made 140 (120 US) dollars, yay! One day after working Bobby and I met up with B&J at the squash club. Junko got me squash shoes! They rock some freaking socks. They work so well. I took pictures when we got home.
This next picture is after a scooter ride. They are lots of fun to ride
Ma tante, Mon oncle!
This is Split-Ear. Barnabas feeds him whenever he comes by. Right now he is eating a bowl of sunflower seeds, but they also like apples. I got to feed some deer. It was neat.
Parent and child. That's the bebe above, with the spots
It is beautiful here. The scenery, the wildlife, the architecture, (especially in Victoria) everything!
At some point in here I had my first pho experience. Pho is a vietnamese noodle dish, and and there is a pho restaurant nearby called Pho Boi. Props to whoever came up with that name. It is very yummy and spicy and good. It is made up of a chicken broth, pho noodles, (which are kind of spaghetti-like) bean sprouts, some kind of greenery, optional hot sauce, and some other ingredients that I am forgetting. Did I mention it is really yummy? and spicy? and good?
I have had Pho twice I think.
At some point I saw Transformers again, this time with Barnabas and Junko. It was good.
We also went to the Greek-Lebanese food place again. Me, Don, Bobby, Junko, and Barnabas. It is family owned and run, and the dad is neat. He's got the masculine Greek look, but he winks in greeting people, and I think that is cool when people do that. A subtle wink can be very nice. I think it can say more than a handshake or some words. It said something like, "Hi. Thanks for coming in. I hope you had a nice time. Please come back again, we enjoyed having you here".
Squash is fun, and the squash club has a great atmosphere. There are all sorts of people, but there is a group of regulars that we see all the time. There are a bunch of twenty and thirtysomethings, some fourty and fiftysomethings, and a couple sixty and seventysomethings.
Junko also took me to play badminton a couple more times, and these times there was a club there. They were on the older side, maybe aged 45-70, and many had much higher technical ability than me. It was good, but I think I prefer squash.
Thanks to the timeline Junko just made for me, I can now tell you what happened in order!

On Saturday the 11th, we went to Cowichan Valley to go tubing down one of the many rivers in the area. Junko's friend lent us the tubes, and her son goes to Vancouver Island University, so I talked to him to get a better feel for what it is like there. I don't know If I mentioned it already, but I walked around VIU for a bit. Following that conversation, I found out that I don't want to go there. Tubing was fun, and pretty intense at some points. The trip was supposed to take about two hours, but it lasted about four and a half. For the majority of it we floated along, hanging onto each other's tubes, but there werea bunch of places with shallow, rapid-type water. We had a signal for when the river got shallow. We said "bums up" and we all tried to lie flat on our tubes so our butts wouldn't smack into the rocks. A couple of times I did get smacked pretty hard in the tailbone, and it hurt like a monkey. Some parts were scary, because when there were big rocks jutting out of the water it would create a mini waterfall that had some major sucking power. Thankfully, we only got separated two or three times, and only one of us fell off our tubes. Junko fell once in a big patch (that is a relative term, it wasn't like real rapids) of rapids and she managed to not get banged up. All in all it was a fun trip! Then we went to Boston pizza, which was founded in Alberta or something (que hora es???). I have pictures but they are waiting to be developed -- they were taken with a waterproof camera.

Sunday, July 12 - We got up early and drove to Victoria, the capital of BC and the largest city on Vancouver Island. Of course, that isn't saying much. Vancouver Island isn't very big. Junko and Barnabas had a meeting or consultation or something, so they dropped me off in Chinatown.
There I met a Chinese speaking garbage can. it said that Victoria's Chinatown is Canada's oldest Chinatown.
Downtown Victoria is set up like this:
Chinatown is in the north, and I am pretty sure they dropped me off at the aptly named "Store Street". There are stores on Store Street. I walked south and around the bend of the harbour and I ended up around the Parliament buildings. Then I took a mini boat thing back across where I met B&J in Chinatown for my first Dim Sum. Dim Sum yum yum.
Here are pictures I took while wlking around.
This is a sweet sign. It seemed to me like something I might draw in my notebook at school.
Catawampus: Fudge and Funk -- 'nuff said
The harbour, facing Parliament (south-west)
West
North-west to my right is the Chinatown area
The band on top is called "Alcoholic White Trash". That's wicked. The middle sheet advertises www.raptorsarescary.com
I thought that was funny. Turns out that Raptors are Scary is a band. I kind like them.
This is a Harbour Air in Victoria. The ajoining restaurant is called the flying otter. A pattern? I think so.
This car had a bunch of action figures in it, and some funny bumper stickers on the back.
These say:
"What happens over the rainbow stays over the rainbow"
"God is coming and she's pissed"
"God protect me from your followers"
"My other car is a broom"
"Here, dragon dragon"
"Nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the coven"
"You don't have to believe everything you think"
"Witch's parking..."(I can't read the rest)
The city has a distinctly English feel.
The flowers around the harbour are nice.
There was an art contest so there were a bunch of these eagles painted in different ways.

The Empress Hotel. I overheard a tour guide say that Victoria is known for its haunted-ness. I thought that this was a cool old haunted hotel. But alas, I soon discovered that it is a Fairmount Hotel. Took all the mystique right out of it. Gosh!
It's a double-decker, innit.
R.N. stands for royal navy. Also rambunctious nutmeg if you get creative
I took one of those little green boats back to Chinatown.
This was when I realized that the Empress is a lot less cool than I thought.
Government street. That is where government happens.
Parliament - Funkadelic
This was along the waterfront. it says "welcome to Victoria"
Those people lined up are native artists selling their wares.
Lots of ducks. I was riding in the green boat.
Store street in Chinatown.
B&J with Chinese hats.