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.