Today the BCIT grads came in for a group meeting. I was to give them a run down of what they should know in preparation for the exam coming up in a few weeks. I don't feel like I'm the best person to be guiding them, but I'm the last person to have written the exam, and since David isn't here anymore I guess it's up to me.
Standing in the boardroom today I couldn't help but remember the quote from Darth Vader in A New Hope. The scene where he comes face to face with his former master Obi Wan Kenobi for the first time in over a decade:
"The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master."
It was just under a year ago that I was sitting in the boardroom listening to David as he taught me the ways of the LLQP. Now standing on the opposite corner the excitement of learning was gone, in its place was the excitement of attention.
I went on to give them as much useful information as I could, and tried to answer their questions to the best of my knowledge. Being a teacher really is tough, you have to know what you're talking about, because if you don't you have no one else to turn to. And of course Alex didn't sit in on the meeting cause it would have been a snoozer, but all in all it went pretty smooth.
After squeezing some feedback from them, I was assured that what I was doing indeed was beneficial to them. And they seemed genuinely appreciative that I had taken time out of my day to help them, because everyone knows how busy I am.
This group that was here today is a group that shows immense potential, and there's no doubt in my mind that they will one day surpass me in terms of success. Am I saddened by this? Not at all, I see it as an epic novel. I am the side character that gives the heroes of the story the knowledge that they need to continue on their journey.
Teaching isn't such a bad occupation, seeing the understanding in their faces brings satisfaction to me. Should they fail the exam though, some heads are gonna roll.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Parking Options
Yesterday was the second last Mandarin class that I was taking. I arrived a little early and went to pay for a parking stub. A lady in front of me was having problems getting the machine to read her credit card. After she tried to no avail I spotted her some change, paid for my own parking stub and we were both on our way. At this point I was feeling pretty good, thinking that my random act of kindness would bring good karma. But little did I know...
After class I got back to my car at half past nine. I got into my car when I noticed a flimsy white paper below my windshield wipers. I instantly knew that it was a parking ticket but my jaw still hit the ground. How is this possible I paid for my parking spot, I put the receipt clearly on my dashboard, I even paid for someone else's parking stub. I grabbed the parking ticket and pretty much cussed everything around me.
By now I was ready to tear someone a new exit hole. I was going through the ticket up and down looking for a name and a phone number. That's when I noticed:
Vehicle Make: GMC
I did have quite a bit to drink the night before from my birthday but I'm pretty sure I wasn't driving a GMC.
After a good long look I figured out that the ticket wasn't mine, the information and car description had nothing to do with me. The ticket belongs to some commercial vehicle (based on the 4 number, 2 letter license plate).
Relief instantly flushed through my body. Karma didn't slap me in the face.
Wait. Hold on. This driver got a parking ticket, and pretty much refusing to pay, instead of throwing it away they put it on my car? Is this meant to be a practical joke? Maybe. But the more logical reason, would be that the driver after refusing to pay decides to put it on my car hoping that I would pay it off without noticing that it wasn't for me.
Now this pisses me off. I pay my dues, paying the $2.50 for my parking ticket, and just because this douchebag is too cheap to fork out $2.50 for a parking ticket they try to get someone else to pay for their mistakes? This is a horrible excuse for a human being.
So here are my options:
A) Do nothing, let it go, impark (the parking company) will go after the driver with their collections agency. Maybe put a lien on their credit bureau.
B) Use the license plate to locate the guy and put the ticket back on the car. This would actually be pretty funny.
C) Use the license plate to locate the person, and if it is a commercial vehicle, tell their superior of their actions.
D) Call impark, pretend to be the driver and tell impark to go f*ck themselves and that they'll never get the money. And if they ever try to get the money I'll come punch their teeth out and burn their whole damn building down.
Hmmmm...
D is tempting, very tempting. But I'm not that kind of person. Sadly, I'll probably go with A, however unsatisfying it may be. Hopefully impark goes after the driver, if not for them, at least on my behalf. We need karma to back hand slap this person in the face.
After class I got back to my car at half past nine. I got into my car when I noticed a flimsy white paper below my windshield wipers. I instantly knew that it was a parking ticket but my jaw still hit the ground. How is this possible I paid for my parking spot, I put the receipt clearly on my dashboard, I even paid for someone else's parking stub. I grabbed the parking ticket and pretty much cussed everything around me.
By now I was ready to tear someone a new exit hole. I was going through the ticket up and down looking for a name and a phone number. That's when I noticed:
I did have quite a bit to drink the night before from my birthday but I'm pretty sure I wasn't driving a GMC.
After a good long look I figured out that the ticket wasn't mine, the information and car description had nothing to do with me. The ticket belongs to some commercial vehicle (based on the 4 number, 2 letter license plate).
Relief instantly flushed through my body. Karma didn't slap me in the face.
Wait. Hold on. This driver got a parking ticket, and pretty much refusing to pay, instead of throwing it away they put it on my car? Is this meant to be a practical joke? Maybe. But the more logical reason, would be that the driver after refusing to pay decides to put it on my car hoping that I would pay it off without noticing that it wasn't for me.
Now this pisses me off. I pay my dues, paying the $2.50 for my parking ticket, and just because this douchebag is too cheap to fork out $2.50 for a parking ticket they try to get someone else to pay for their mistakes? This is a horrible excuse for a human being.
So here are my options:
A) Do nothing, let it go, impark (the parking company) will go after the driver with their collections agency. Maybe put a lien on their credit bureau.
B) Use the license plate to locate the guy and put the ticket back on the car. This would actually be pretty funny.
C) Use the license plate to locate the person, and if it is a commercial vehicle, tell their superior of their actions.
D) Call impark, pretend to be the driver and tell impark to go f*ck themselves and that they'll never get the money. And if they ever try to get the money I'll come punch their teeth out and burn their whole damn building down.
Hmmmm...
D is tempting, very tempting. But I'm not that kind of person. Sadly, I'll probably go with A, however unsatisfying it may be. Hopefully impark goes after the driver, if not for them, at least on my behalf. We need karma to back hand slap this person in the face.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Upset about the upset
For my birthday potluck we played what has to be the most horrible game ever: Shot of beer every minute game. We started off with 6 people all ready to take on the task, with the winner take all cash on the line. But after roughly 6 shots of beer, it was voted that we should at least eat some of the food before playing so that we don't waste the food. Ken and I were totally against this idea as we noticed a few of the contestants were already straining. But democracy rules.
After a couple of hours of eating we resumed, this time with a late contender: Kevin. Kevin's not a regular drinker, I haven't seen him drink heavy since the UBC ski trip a few years back, so I wasn't worried.
The game started out fine, I was feeling good, a few people were already showing signs of weakness in their faces. I noted that my real threats were Shum and Ken. Shum can hold more hard liquor then me and Ken's a tank. After a few more shots, Julio went out as expected, Joe quit due to allergies, leaving the 5 of us still thirsty for more. Unexpectedly a few shots later Shum called quits. Shocked and amazed I looked at Ken who was hunched over. With my main competitor out and the other borderline out I could feel victory in my grasps. But I also felt the effects of all the gas from the beer.
This game is not a test of whether you can hold your liquor or not, it's a test of your stomach size, mine was stuff. Eating before playing this game is ill advised and I found this out the hard way. Phil looked like he was passed out, I'm not sure whether it was the alcohol or the gas. Every minute that passed he'd wake up take a shot then lie back down on the stairs. Kevin looked like he was perfectly fine since he didn't eat all that much.
In a shocking turn of events Ken called it quits and I was slouching over. The heavy weights in this game were all out or pretty much out. The next few shots were seemed magnified, every shot that went down, gas forced it almost all the way back up. My stomach was full it was coming up the throat now. Each minute passed by faster and faster, yet still Phil routinely woke up took a shot then passed out, and Kevin was smiling and drinking.
A few more shots passed and I could hear the clock counting down, I had 10 more seconds to take the shot before I was disqualified. I stared it down, back slouched, hands on the knees for support, I tried to reach out for the shot glass but the beer that was already in me was holding me back. How could I lose? Phil was pretty much sleeping for 59 seconds, Kevin was not ever known as a drinker, yet here I was with 5 second to go but unable to take a hold of the shot glass.
3...2...1...booooo
I was disqualified, filled with shame and disappointment I admitted defeat. With everyone knocked out, there remained only the two under dogs, this was a sad day in the Tequila Boys history books.
Three more shots later Phil awoke to take the shot, then proceeded to puke his lungs out all over my backyard. Kevin had won. A late contender, he hadn't eaten anything, if this was hard liquor the outcome would have been different. I ran through all the excuses in my head, but the better man won the game and I'm sure he could've taken more.
The shot of beer every minute game (I don't know the official name) is a horrible game, it forces you to drink against your will, it forces food down your stomach, it forces gas up your throat, and it forces you to remain in concentration just to avoid vomiting. Rest assured that the next time I do play this game I will starve myself for a week first.
After a couple of hours of eating we resumed, this time with a late contender: Kevin. Kevin's not a regular drinker, I haven't seen him drink heavy since the UBC ski trip a few years back, so I wasn't worried.
The game started out fine, I was feeling good, a few people were already showing signs of weakness in their faces. I noted that my real threats were Shum and Ken. Shum can hold more hard liquor then me and Ken's a tank. After a few more shots, Julio went out as expected, Joe quit due to allergies, leaving the 5 of us still thirsty for more. Unexpectedly a few shots later Shum called quits. Shocked and amazed I looked at Ken who was hunched over. With my main competitor out and the other borderline out I could feel victory in my grasps. But I also felt the effects of all the gas from the beer.
This game is not a test of whether you can hold your liquor or not, it's a test of your stomach size, mine was stuff. Eating before playing this game is ill advised and I found this out the hard way. Phil looked like he was passed out, I'm not sure whether it was the alcohol or the gas. Every minute that passed he'd wake up take a shot then lie back down on the stairs. Kevin looked like he was perfectly fine since he didn't eat all that much.
In a shocking turn of events Ken called it quits and I was slouching over. The heavy weights in this game were all out or pretty much out. The next few shots were seemed magnified, every shot that went down, gas forced it almost all the way back up. My stomach was full it was coming up the throat now. Each minute passed by faster and faster, yet still Phil routinely woke up took a shot then passed out, and Kevin was smiling and drinking.
A few more shots passed and I could hear the clock counting down, I had 10 more seconds to take the shot before I was disqualified. I stared it down, back slouched, hands on the knees for support, I tried to reach out for the shot glass but the beer that was already in me was holding me back. How could I lose? Phil was pretty much sleeping for 59 seconds, Kevin was not ever known as a drinker, yet here I was with 5 second to go but unable to take a hold of the shot glass.
3...2...1...booooo
I was disqualified, filled with shame and disappointment I admitted defeat. With everyone knocked out, there remained only the two under dogs, this was a sad day in the Tequila Boys history books.
Three more shots later Phil awoke to take the shot, then proceeded to puke his lungs out all over my backyard. Kevin had won. A late contender, he hadn't eaten anything, if this was hard liquor the outcome would have been different. I ran through all the excuses in my head, but the better man won the game and I'm sure he could've taken more.
The shot of beer every minute game (I don't know the official name) is a horrible game, it forces you to drink against your will, it forces food down your stomach, it forces gas up your throat, and it forces you to remain in concentration just to avoid vomiting. Rest assured that the next time I do play this game I will starve myself for a week first.
Quarter Way to the Dirt Nap
The weekend came and went by unbelievably fast, much like the past 25 years. Where has all the time gone? The last 25 years has blurred by me and all I can do now is reflect.
I worked the entire weekend again, I really need to stop doing seven days, but on Saturday it was my Grandpa's birthday. His birthday changes every year since everyone is following the Chinese calendar so I'm going to stop trying to circle a date on my calendar.
The look on my Grandpa's face as he received happy birthday's from each of his grand children, was a look that puts me to shame. Here I am complaining about 25 years flying by, and there he was despite being older then all of his grand children combined he could not have had a bigger smile on his face. It goes to show that it's not about how many years you've given up, rather it's about how many memories you've received.
Onward to Sunday, the date of my birthday potluck party. By the time 5pm rolled around, I was getting a little concerned, we had potato salad and samosas, and that was pretty much it in terms of food. As if on cue, my tardy friends pulled through and brought enough food to have left overs for a week.
We played the shot of beer every minute game, this deserves its own post, Kevin out of nowhere ends up winning the game despite being the underdog.
After everyone stuffed themselves with food and drinks I toasted to the past 25 years and 25 more to go. I think I said 25 to go which kind of means I'll live till 50. Not really what I was trying to say but we were all buzzed so hopefully no one remembers.
We all went to Dickens to play some touch football. There on the gridiron playgrounds we put together what was possibly the greatest team ever assembled: Team Livingstone. Standing on foreign soil the Livingstone alumni banded together to deliver what has to be the most lopsided victories in the history of lopsided victories. Three interceptions, a concrete wall of a defense, an offense that produced more then the entire industrial revolution, resulted in a final score of 21-0. The difference maker was that we played man to man defense while the other team played zone which left us wide open for Hail Marys. The highlight of the game was when Amanada bulldozered Bob to the floor.
The night ended off with cake at my house provided by Gloria, it was a delicious cake, too bad everyone was stuffed and we couldn't finish.
The gifts
I'm not really big on receiving gifts, but the gifts this year were really something special. Gloria got me a heart felt card along with a digital picture frame loaded with some great pictures (I'm sure it took her a long long time to choose). Amanda got me a metallic business card holder, complete with an engraving of my name. And the boys all signed a card made by Amanda with a cartoon picture of my face on it.
There really is no better way to close out a quarter of a century then with the events of the this weekend. And in closing: the past 25 years were all about learning (I've learned a lot and I'll surely continue learning), but the next 25 are what will define me, and I'll do whatever I can to ensure that it is a legacy I can look back on and be proud of, like my grandfather before me.
I worked the entire weekend again, I really need to stop doing seven days, but on Saturday it was my Grandpa's birthday. His birthday changes every year since everyone is following the Chinese calendar so I'm going to stop trying to circle a date on my calendar.
The look on my Grandpa's face as he received happy birthday's from each of his grand children, was a look that puts me to shame. Here I am complaining about 25 years flying by, and there he was despite being older then all of his grand children combined he could not have had a bigger smile on his face. It goes to show that it's not about how many years you've given up, rather it's about how many memories you've received.
Onward to Sunday, the date of my birthday potluck party. By the time 5pm rolled around, I was getting a little concerned, we had potato salad and samosas, and that was pretty much it in terms of food. As if on cue, my tardy friends pulled through and brought enough food to have left overs for a week.
We played the shot of beer every minute game, this deserves its own post, Kevin out of nowhere ends up winning the game despite being the underdog.
After everyone stuffed themselves with food and drinks I toasted to the past 25 years and 25 more to go. I think I said 25 to go which kind of means I'll live till 50. Not really what I was trying to say but we were all buzzed so hopefully no one remembers.
We all went to Dickens to play some touch football. There on the gridiron playgrounds we put together what was possibly the greatest team ever assembled: Team Livingstone. Standing on foreign soil the Livingstone alumni banded together to deliver what has to be the most lopsided victories in the history of lopsided victories. Three interceptions, a concrete wall of a defense, an offense that produced more then the entire industrial revolution, resulted in a final score of 21-0. The difference maker was that we played man to man defense while the other team played zone which left us wide open for Hail Marys. The highlight of the game was when Amanada bulldozered Bob to the floor.
The night ended off with cake at my house provided by Gloria, it was a delicious cake, too bad everyone was stuffed and we couldn't finish.
The gifts
I'm not really big on receiving gifts, but the gifts this year were really something special. Gloria got me a heart felt card along with a digital picture frame loaded with some great pictures (I'm sure it took her a long long time to choose). Amanda got me a metallic business card holder, complete with an engraving of my name. And the boys all signed a card made by Amanda with a cartoon picture of my face on it.
There really is no better way to close out a quarter of a century then with the events of the this weekend. And in closing: the past 25 years were all about learning (I've learned a lot and I'll surely continue learning), but the next 25 are what will define me, and I'll do whatever I can to ensure that it is a legacy I can look back on and be proud of, like my grandfather before me.
Friday, June 20, 2008
It's all in the numbers
Not much to do at work today, so I started thinking about what jersey number I would wear when the Canucks finally draft me. My obvious number one choice would be 23. I'm not trying to draw comparisons to Jordan, it's the date I was born. I've tried to wear 23 for just about everything I've done. However, one Alex Edler is currently wearing my jersey number. The previous Canuck players that have worn the famed '23' have not done it justice. Not since Martin Gelinas has there been a worthy enough player to wear 23.
Alex Edler,, who currently wears 23, has immense potential, he's unbelievably calm, so I'll let him wear it for now. Which leads me to my dilemma, what number would I wear then? As a kid I wore number 0 because I used to play in net, but no one wears the number 0 in the NHL. Other jersey number possibilities I could wear: 15 (one less then the great Trevor Linden), 29 (as a tribute to Gino Odjick), 21 (all around good number), or 37 (16+7+14, that's right those are the numbers for the 'Life Line').
Some numbers that are off limits: the retired numbers [12, 16], the greats from '94 [1, 7, 10, 14], the greats from the West Coast Express [19, 44, 2], and the miscellaneous numbers I would not wear [89, 96].
This doesn't leave me many options, all other numbers are ugly numbers. Luckily I've figured out which number I should use. The answers been here all along, I've always known which number I should be wearing. This number may even be more awesome then 23. This number is:
In commemoration of the year that the cup was stolen from us, the year in which we should have won, the year in which we came within one Nathan Lafayette goal post away, the year in what would have been the greatest dramatic finish in Stanley Cup history, in memory of the year in which I will always remember as 'what if.' I can wear no other number other then 94 until the Canucks finally win the Stanley Cup. When they do then I'll switch back to 23.
Alex Edler,, who currently wears 23, has immense potential, he's unbelievably calm, so I'll let him wear it for now. Which leads me to my dilemma, what number would I wear then? As a kid I wore number 0 because I used to play in net, but no one wears the number 0 in the NHL. Other jersey number possibilities I could wear: 15 (one less then the great Trevor Linden), 29 (as a tribute to Gino Odjick), 21 (all around good number), or 37 (16+7+14, that's right those are the numbers for the 'Life Line').
Some numbers that are off limits: the retired numbers [12, 16], the greats from '94 [1, 7, 10, 14], the greats from the West Coast Express [19, 44, 2], and the miscellaneous numbers I would not wear [89, 96].
This doesn't leave me many options, all other numbers are ugly numbers. Luckily I've figured out which number I should use. The answers been here all along, I've always known which number I should be wearing. This number may even be more awesome then 23. This number is:
In commemoration of the year that the cup was stolen from us, the year in which we should have won, the year in which we came within one Nathan Lafayette goal post away, the year in what would have been the greatest dramatic finish in Stanley Cup history, in memory of the year in which I will always remember as 'what if.' I can wear no other number other then 94 until the Canucks finally win the Stanley Cup. When they do then I'll switch back to 23.
Stiff as a board
I woke up today with a stiff neck. I don't mind the pain, I like to think that I have a decent tolerance for pain, what I do mind though is the stiffness. This lack of mobility is getting to me. It's not so bad since I'm in an office environment, but driving is such a pain. The whole drive down to the office this morning I was worried. Too stiff to shoulder check I tried to stay in one lane, and when I did have to shoulder check it was a full body commitment.
I arrived at the office this morning and tried to Google some solutions to my rigidity problem, and the solutions were: massage it, and put ice packs and heat packs on the neck. So here I am sitting in my chair rubbing my neck and it's not doing anything. Is there no quick fix?
If anyone can find a kick fix for a stiff neck they will be an instant millionaire. People would have to buy it in advance, sort of a 'in case of emergency' thing. The amount of sales would go through the roof. Someone needs to get on this ASAP.
I was going to make a picture of a spray can with the words "Stiff No More" on it, but, I'm too stiff. Kind of ironic.
I arrived at the office this morning and tried to Google some solutions to my rigidity problem, and the solutions were: massage it, and put ice packs and heat packs on the neck. So here I am sitting in my chair rubbing my neck and it's not doing anything. Is there no quick fix?
If anyone can find a kick fix for a stiff neck they will be an instant millionaire. People would have to buy it in advance, sort of a 'in case of emergency' thing. The amount of sales would go through the roof. Someone needs to get on this ASAP.
I was going to make a picture of a spray can with the words "Stiff No More" on it, but, I'm too stiff. Kind of ironic.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Puerto Vallarta - Don't forget me
Day 7
The week came and went way too fast. Sitting in the hotel waiting for check out, trying to reflect on the last few days, it was all a blur. We ate our last lunch at the hotel, I'm not even going to describe the food I'm out of adjectives. We packed our things and left for the airport around 3pm.
The taxi ride to the airport was a little frightening, these cabbies drove fast, and furious. Where's Rodriguez? At customs, Shum's football was confiscated, they wanted him to deflate the ball, they refused to let him take his Canadian Air filled football onto the plane. Costa's pill bottle labelled 'Gel' went through customs no questions asked.
Our first flight was to LAX. Around a 2 hour flight, after which we got some food. The connecting flight had us fly to Las Vegas, where we stopped for another 2 hours. We wanted to go to the strip, but the airport attendent told us we'd be cutting it close. Another airport attendent told us about his smoking spot in the parking lot. We went up there and we could see the whole strip. Pictures were hard to take because by then it was night time. I would definitely like to visit Vegas in the near future.
After eating some food at the airport we walked to the check in place, but realized after reaching there that we were on the wrong wing. We had to do a mad sprint across the airport to the right check in place.
We got to Seatac airport past midnight, and we prepped ourselves for another long night at the airport. Most of us took a nap, but we all got up before 6am. We caught the bus to the Greyhound station where we would bus back to Vancouver. The rest of the trip wasn't too bad. Again equipped with my Tom Clancy book (I was only able to read 4 chapters all week) the time went by reasonably fast. First thing we noticed after crossing the border, gas was now at 145 a litre. I should've stayed in Mexico.
Amanda picked us up and we went to eat Vietnamese pho. When I got home I couldn't wait to do laundry.
I was happy to be home, but I already missed Puerto Vallarta. As nice of a place as it was I don't see myself paying that much money to go back. I would go to other parts of Mexico but not back to Puerto Vallarta, which kind of makes me sad. The week that I was there flew by me in a burst of sights and sounds. And as of right now I don't see myself ever experiencing those exact things again.
I'm going to miss the beach, miss the pools, miss the food (oh man the food). Hopefully Devin grows up and stops promoting clubs. Hopefully Rodriguez makes it big time, Rodriguez! And hopefully I'll keep these memories forever. Writing these posts I hope that I can look back and see that this was a great vacation and not one I should ever forget.
I raise my drink to you Puerto Vallarta, we met for one week, and I'll never see you again, but you've stolen a piece of this Tequila Boy's heart.
The week came and went way too fast. Sitting in the hotel waiting for check out, trying to reflect on the last few days, it was all a blur. We ate our last lunch at the hotel, I'm not even going to describe the food I'm out of adjectives. We packed our things and left for the airport around 3pm.
The taxi ride to the airport was a little frightening, these cabbies drove fast, and furious. Where's Rodriguez? At customs, Shum's football was confiscated, they wanted him to deflate the ball, they refused to let him take his Canadian Air filled football onto the plane. Costa's pill bottle labelled 'Gel' went through customs no questions asked.
Our first flight was to LAX. Around a 2 hour flight, after which we got some food. The connecting flight had us fly to Las Vegas, where we stopped for another 2 hours. We wanted to go to the strip, but the airport attendent told us we'd be cutting it close. Another airport attendent told us about his smoking spot in the parking lot. We went up there and we could see the whole strip. Pictures were hard to take because by then it was night time. I would definitely like to visit Vegas in the near future.
After eating some food at the airport we walked to the check in place, but realized after reaching there that we were on the wrong wing. We had to do a mad sprint across the airport to the right check in place.
We got to Seatac airport past midnight, and we prepped ourselves for another long night at the airport. Most of us took a nap, but we all got up before 6am. We caught the bus to the Greyhound station where we would bus back to Vancouver. The rest of the trip wasn't too bad. Again equipped with my Tom Clancy book (I was only able to read 4 chapters all week) the time went by reasonably fast. First thing we noticed after crossing the border, gas was now at 145 a litre. I should've stayed in Mexico.
Amanda picked us up and we went to eat Vietnamese pho. When I got home I couldn't wait to do laundry.
I was happy to be home, but I already missed Puerto Vallarta. As nice of a place as it was I don't see myself paying that much money to go back. I would go to other parts of Mexico but not back to Puerto Vallarta, which kind of makes me sad. The week that I was there flew by me in a burst of sights and sounds. And as of right now I don't see myself ever experiencing those exact things again.
I'm going to miss the beach, miss the pools, miss the food (oh man the food). Hopefully Devin grows up and stops promoting clubs. Hopefully Rodriguez makes it big time, Rodriguez! And hopefully I'll keep these memories forever. Writing these posts I hope that I can look back and see that this was a great vacation and not one I should ever forget.
I raise my drink to you Puerto Vallarta, we met for one week, and I'll never see you again, but you've stolen a piece of this Tequila Boy's heart.
Puerto Vallarta - Taking the offer
Day 6
We woke up this morning and constructed La Pyramide! 48 beers in 2 days, I'm proud to be a Tequila Boy. After taking pictures we went down to the beach again, today would be another day of lounging.
It was our last day here today, tomorrow didn't count we would only have half a day tomorrow.
Basically being our last day here we finally got around to trying out Taco and Beer. Tacos were tiny, but it was good. I had 5 tacos, and I'm a small eater. We took more pictures today too, as we felt that we didn't take enough pictures.
For dinner we walked to the marina again, there we saw an alligator swimming in the marina. I didn't know there were alligators in Puerto Vallarta. What about our snorkeling site? The water was murky...Damn you Manini!
We ate at this place on the other end of the marina, I don't recall the name, but it was a great place. I really wished we found this place earlier. Pretty much all of us ordered the same thing. $20 got us a whole lobster, shrimp, "filet mignon," desert, and tequila tasting. "Filet mignon" was a piece of filet fish, but still $20 you can't beat that. We also ordered some drinks. The margarita was huge. I ordered a Red Sky which was Indio beer mixed with what I assume was salsa. I like beer, I like salsa, I love Red Sky.
Our waiter was awesome, he came by and gave us two bottles of tequila, he told us that the Tequila 7+7 would make you go blind, the other one was better tasting. So obviously we try the 7+7 first...no amount of lime can subdue the burn. The other tequila though went down really smooth. Our waiter then brought over shots of Don Julio mixed with 7up for each of us. He tapped each of them on the table twice then passed it to us. It was better then any other tequila I've ever had. Mental note steal Julio's Don Julio bottle.
The dessert, more alcohol: Kahula, I would have expected nothing less. Some random people came up to our table and started drinking with us, free tequila does that to people. We took shots with them and started chanting the chant we learned on the snorkeling trip, then out of no where a man from the table next to us hammers his fist to the table and yells out "I'm trying to order some food!" Me and the boys look at each other like "errr," then the random strangers break the silence by imitating using a stupid voice. We're surrounded by crazies, surprisingly the guy didn't do anything.
They moved on and started drinking with other tables, then they started taking pictures. The girls are pretty good looking and I get called to be a wingman. Being the awesome wingman that I am I go in and break the ice. We end up talking to them (them and their broken english), we took some more pictures and exchanged contact info.
On our way back we passed by this girl who said she's from Vancouver so we started talking to her, I think her name was Anna. She moved down to Puerto Vallarta recently because of a boy she met, now she sells time shares. Pretty attractive girl, must be a helluva guy to make her move down to Puerto Vallarta permanently selling condos.
After dinner we took a taxi to Prestige. Prestige was great. Alex is a good man. Tomorrow would be a long day, and so this was a great way to end the week.
We woke up this morning and constructed La Pyramide! 48 beers in 2 days, I'm proud to be a Tequila Boy. After taking pictures we went down to the beach again, today would be another day of lounging.
It was our last day here today, tomorrow didn't count we would only have half a day tomorrow.
Basically being our last day here we finally got around to trying out Taco and Beer. Tacos were tiny, but it was good. I had 5 tacos, and I'm a small eater. We took more pictures today too, as we felt that we didn't take enough pictures.
For dinner we walked to the marina again, there we saw an alligator swimming in the marina. I didn't know there were alligators in Puerto Vallarta. What about our snorkeling site? The water was murky...Damn you Manini!
We ate at this place on the other end of the marina, I don't recall the name, but it was a great place. I really wished we found this place earlier. Pretty much all of us ordered the same thing. $20 got us a whole lobster, shrimp, "filet mignon," desert, and tequila tasting. "Filet mignon" was a piece of filet fish, but still $20 you can't beat that. We also ordered some drinks. The margarita was huge. I ordered a Red Sky which was Indio beer mixed with what I assume was salsa. I like beer, I like salsa, I love Red Sky.
Our waiter was awesome, he came by and gave us two bottles of tequila, he told us that the Tequila 7+7 would make you go blind, the other one was better tasting. So obviously we try the 7+7 first...no amount of lime can subdue the burn. The other tequila though went down really smooth. Our waiter then brought over shots of Don Julio mixed with 7up for each of us. He tapped each of them on the table twice then passed it to us. It was better then any other tequila I've ever had. Mental note steal Julio's Don Julio bottle.
The dessert, more alcohol: Kahula, I would have expected nothing less. Some random people came up to our table and started drinking with us, free tequila does that to people. We took shots with them and started chanting the chant we learned on the snorkeling trip, then out of no where a man from the table next to us hammers his fist to the table and yells out "I'm trying to order some food!" Me and the boys look at each other like "errr," then the random strangers break the silence by imitating using a stupid voice. We're surrounded by crazies, surprisingly the guy didn't do anything.
They moved on and started drinking with other tables, then they started taking pictures. The girls are pretty good looking and I get called to be a wingman. Being the awesome wingman that I am I go in and break the ice. We end up talking to them (them and their broken english), we took some more pictures and exchanged contact info.
On our way back we passed by this girl who said she's from Vancouver so we started talking to her, I think her name was Anna. She moved down to Puerto Vallarta recently because of a boy she met, now she sells time shares. Pretty attractive girl, must be a helluva guy to make her move down to Puerto Vallarta permanently selling condos.
After dinner we took a taxi to Prestige. Prestige was great. Alex is a good man. Tomorrow would be a long day, and so this was a great way to end the week.
Puerto Vallarta - Lounging
Day 5
No more downtown!
We woke up late as Shum and Julio wanted to join the ping pong tournament. When they got down there, Shum barely made the cut, Julio didn't make it on time. Shum got wasted. 21-3? Something like that, the girl whooped him. To be fair, she was the daughter of the winner, but still funny.
The rest of the afternoon we lounged around. We were in the pool for quite a while. I started off the day learning to float, but by the end of the day I was swimming. We threw around a ball playing keep away. We also used the water beds, man was it ever relaxing.
As the afternoon came and went we realized that we were out of beer. So we played high card, low card goes get beer. I lost, stupid rigged game, so I took the bus with Costa to get beer. It wasn't too bad, I ended up buying the lot of the little tequila bottles as souvenirs. Leaving La Playa, yesterdays cab ride was playing in my head so we just took the bus back to the hotel. 24 pack on the lap and bumpy ride do not go well together.
Once back at the hotel I was trying to check the score of game 1 between Lakers and Celtics. The feed at the sports bar was frozen though, sucks. We ate at the Westin for dinner as we didn't want to go downtown. It was all you can eat and the food was delicious (have I used delicious yet?). Will and Shum claims that the pasta's the best they've ever had.
After dinner, construction of La Pyramide continued. With another man down, Julio fell asleep, we were still able to match our efforts from the day before. Quite a feat.
With the pieces in order, tomorrow we will finish La Pyramide!
No more downtown!
We woke up late as Shum and Julio wanted to join the ping pong tournament. When they got down there, Shum barely made the cut, Julio didn't make it on time. Shum got wasted. 21-3? Something like that, the girl whooped him. To be fair, she was the daughter of the winner, but still funny.
The rest of the afternoon we lounged around. We were in the pool for quite a while. I started off the day learning to float, but by the end of the day I was swimming. We threw around a ball playing keep away. We also used the water beds, man was it ever relaxing.
As the afternoon came and went we realized that we were out of beer. So we played high card, low card goes get beer. I lost, stupid rigged game, so I took the bus with Costa to get beer. It wasn't too bad, I ended up buying the lot of the little tequila bottles as souvenirs. Leaving La Playa, yesterdays cab ride was playing in my head so we just took the bus back to the hotel. 24 pack on the lap and bumpy ride do not go well together.
Once back at the hotel I was trying to check the score of game 1 between Lakers and Celtics. The feed at the sports bar was frozen though, sucks. We ate at the Westin for dinner as we didn't want to go downtown. It was all you can eat and the food was delicious (have I used delicious yet?). Will and Shum claims that the pasta's the best they've ever had.
After dinner, construction of La Pyramide continued. With another man down, Julio fell asleep, we were still able to match our efforts from the day before. Quite a feat.
With the pieces in order, tomorrow we will finish La Pyramide!
Puerto Vallarta - The Strip
Day 4
We woke up this morning, and had lunch at the hotel again. Although not as good as the first time, it was still stupendous (I'm running out of words to describe the food). Afterwards we made our way again back to the downtown strip. Today would be shopping day. I'm not big on shopping, but I had to get some souvenirs. By now we were used to the pushy sales people, we no longer felt guilty for saying no, a few of the times we just flat out ignored them. The few sales people that we did talk to, they were really friendly. Genuinely friendly? Who knows.
I didn't know what souvenirs to get so I would just wing it. Costa was looking for a shirt, Will was looking for alcohol. The strip was filled with souvenir shops, clothing, key chains, shot glasses, food, the works. Throughout the day we saw a lot of Huichol shops. These shops sold clay sculptures; what made them special was that they had beads on the sculptures held in place using bee wax. The beads were put on one at a time by hand, strategically placed to form symbols, each with a different meaning.
Shum and Julio both bought a lizard about the size of a 8x11" sheet of paper, Costa bought a snake for his brother, and I bought a vase and a dolphin. Not for me...
At the end of the strip we reached a night market-esque location. Little stand alone booths selling random things. It took us a while but Julio, Will, and I talked a guy down from $30 to $10 each for Luchidore masks. Best $10 I ever spent. As we were leaving we tried to look for Rodriguez but he was nowhere to be found.
On our way back we stopped by La Playa, where we picked up some alcohol. They had free tequila tasting there. Most of us bought Jose Cuervo, Julio bought a really nice bottle of Don Julio. We also saw some bottles with scorpions and worms inside.
The taxi ride back to the hotel would be the worse taxi ride we've ever taken, and will probably ever take. The cabbie kept wanting $10, $10 could've got us from downtown back to the hotel, La Playa was half way. There was no way we would pay $10, and after 5 minutes of back and forth he settled for $6. Before he drove off he said something to his cabbie friend, something that sounded like chino (Chinese). The whole ride back was dead quiet, and the cabbie drove like a mad man. Tailgating, lane changing, speeding; this was not worth saving $4. We miss Rodriguez.
After dropping everything off, we went back to downtown, because we're weird like that. We wanted to go to Carlos O'Brien's because it was advertised that they were having a wet t-shirt contest, we wanted to go for the food not for the wet t-shirt contest. When we walked by it was pretty dead so we didn't go in, I mean the food was dead... We went into Senor Frogs again, this time the live band was already kicking it. They were surprisingly really good. They played Franz Ferdinand's Take me out, Beastie Boy's Fight for your right. A bunch of girls got on stage and started to dance with the lead singer, who looked unphased, must happen a lot. Mental note, join a band.
We ran into Devin again who told us where to go again, but we ended up going back to the hotel. We were sick of downtown by now.
Costa passed out right away, running backwards does that to a man, the rest of us finished 24 cans of beer. It only cost us $20, what a steal. We were going to drink enough to make a pyramid. La Pyramide! 24 wasn't enough though, but we were tired, La Pyramide would have to wait for tomorrow.
We woke up this morning, and had lunch at the hotel again. Although not as good as the first time, it was still stupendous (I'm running out of words to describe the food). Afterwards we made our way again back to the downtown strip. Today would be shopping day. I'm not big on shopping, but I had to get some souvenirs. By now we were used to the pushy sales people, we no longer felt guilty for saying no, a few of the times we just flat out ignored them. The few sales people that we did talk to, they were really friendly. Genuinely friendly? Who knows.
I didn't know what souvenirs to get so I would just wing it. Costa was looking for a shirt, Will was looking for alcohol. The strip was filled with souvenir shops, clothing, key chains, shot glasses, food, the works. Throughout the day we saw a lot of Huichol shops. These shops sold clay sculptures; what made them special was that they had beads on the sculptures held in place using bee wax. The beads were put on one at a time by hand, strategically placed to form symbols, each with a different meaning.
Shum and Julio both bought a lizard about the size of a 8x11" sheet of paper, Costa bought a snake for his brother, and I bought a vase and a dolphin. Not for me...
At the end of the strip we reached a night market-esque location. Little stand alone booths selling random things. It took us a while but Julio, Will, and I talked a guy down from $30 to $10 each for Luchidore masks. Best $10 I ever spent. As we were leaving we tried to look for Rodriguez but he was nowhere to be found.
On our way back we stopped by La Playa, where we picked up some alcohol. They had free tequila tasting there. Most of us bought Jose Cuervo, Julio bought a really nice bottle of Don Julio. We also saw some bottles with scorpions and worms inside.
The taxi ride back to the hotel would be the worse taxi ride we've ever taken, and will probably ever take. The cabbie kept wanting $10, $10 could've got us from downtown back to the hotel, La Playa was half way. There was no way we would pay $10, and after 5 minutes of back and forth he settled for $6. Before he drove off he said something to his cabbie friend, something that sounded like chino (Chinese). The whole ride back was dead quiet, and the cabbie drove like a mad man. Tailgating, lane changing, speeding; this was not worth saving $4. We miss Rodriguez.
After dropping everything off, we went back to downtown, because we're weird like that. We wanted to go to Carlos O'Brien's because it was advertised that they were having a wet t-shirt contest, we wanted to go for the food not for the wet t-shirt contest. When we walked by it was pretty dead so we didn't go in, I mean the food was dead... We went into Senor Frogs again, this time the live band was already kicking it. They were surprisingly really good. They played Franz Ferdinand's Take me out, Beastie Boy's Fight for your right. A bunch of girls got on stage and started to dance with the lead singer, who looked unphased, must happen a lot. Mental note, join a band.
We ran into Devin again who told us where to go again, but we ended up going back to the hotel. We were sick of downtown by now.
Costa passed out right away, running backwards does that to a man, the rest of us finished 24 cans of beer. It only cost us $20, what a steal. We were going to drink enough to make a pyramid. La Pyramide! 24 wasn't enough though, but we were tired, La Pyramide would have to wait for tomorrow.
Puerto Vallarta - Relax don't do it, when you want to go to it
Day 3
We woke up rather late. The whole trip we were on Vancouver time, all of our meals were 2 hours later then normal. We spent the better half of the day on the beach. We played some ping pong and had lunch at the Westin. Lunch was fantastic, we would have lunch at the same place throughout the week, but this first time was stellar. The salsa was unbelievable. Will could eat it by the spoonful.
Sitting on the beach was so relaxing. Great weather, drinks on the beach side, this was paradise. We took a lot of pictures today, walking around the beach. Too bad we didn't bring a camera on the snorkeling trip yesterday, I would've loved to have taken some pictures there.
I didn't put enough sunscreen on and ended up having a slight burn on my shoulders and chest. We spent the entire afternoon in the sun on the beach.
For dinner we went to downtown Los Palmas (sp?). Dinner was great, I love the food here in Puerto Vallarta. I was expecting to eat tacos and burritos all week, but I was totally wrong.
After dinner we walked around downtown, everywhere we walked we were harassed by people trying to sell to us tours, time shares, taxi rides, tittie bars. Yes people were trying to get us to go to strip clubs. I think they make commission. 'Taxi?' "No thanks" 'Tittie bars?'
Before we ate dinner we bumped into this kid named Devin. First impression this guy looks young, yet here he was talking to us about clubs and drinking, and where all the girls were going to be. We told him that we were planning on going to Senor Frogs (a pub / club) but he told us to go to Collage instead. There was a foam party happening at Collage. I told him he looked young and he said he was 14.
We didn't listen to Devin, so we went to Senor Frogs anyways. Senor Frogs was a nice place, right at the entrance they had girls greeting you then take you by the arm to sit down. At Senor Frogs a bunch of people were dancing on the floor while hip hop was being blasted. We bought a round of Sol for around $4 a pop, which is eight times more expensive then at Oxxo. After a couple of songs, a live band took the floor and that's when we left.
We cabbed back to the hotel first, why I don't remember. But that's when we met our favorite cabbie: Rodriguez. Super friendly cabbie, told us about the 'attractions' and gave us a good price.
From the hotel we made our way to Collage via taxi, and some kid (he looked 8) opened our door, and when we didn't tip him he looked like he wanted to head butt us. We paid the $30 cover charge and went in. $30 came with an open bar (sold!) but the bar was swarmed. I waited 10-15 minutes at the bar before I got my first drink.
We found a table to sit at, I was DD (wasn't driving, but I had to get everyone back to the hotel in one piece). Collage was packed, all with young people as well. Girls in bikinis, guys in board shorts, an endless stream of foam flowing from the ceiling. The main dance floor, which was steps down compared to everywhere else (think coliseum style), was a cesspool of tightly packed bodies. We all had shoes, but Shum, Will, and Julio all jumped into the pool of foam without worries. Costa being the genius that he is took his shoes and socks off and walked around barefoot.
I think I ended up drinking 7 cups of beer, Costa claims to have drank 10, but who can trust a guy walking around barefoot? After a few hours of dancing, they cleared the dance floor. They were going to have a wet t-shirt contest. Girls representing Canada, US, and hometown Mexico. Everyone cheered for their respective country, until the 'Take it off!' chants started, everyone took part in the 'Take it off!' chants no matter which girl was on. The girl from Mexico ended up winning based on the volume of cheering, but surprisingly the crowd seemed to be evenly distributed.
Costa having apparently drank 10 beers tried to talk to the Canada girl, told her he thought she should've won (in other words: you looked the best in a wet t-shirt). Didn't turn out to be anything, but you have to give the man props for doing that.
After we left Collage, we decided to walk back to the hotel, save ourselves $10. Costa issued a challenge to all of us, he wanted to race us running backwards, maybe he did have 10 beers? He ran backwards for quite a while until we yelled at him.
Back at the hotel Costa said he'd take a shower in the morning, claimed he didn't need to shower right now. I would've dragged him into the shower myself if he didn't go willingly, walking around barefoot is just plain disgusting.
It didn't take too long for me to fall asleep after I showered, I pretty much went into deep sleep before my head was on the pillow. I'm a fantastic DD.
We woke up rather late. The whole trip we were on Vancouver time, all of our meals were 2 hours later then normal. We spent the better half of the day on the beach. We played some ping pong and had lunch at the Westin. Lunch was fantastic, we would have lunch at the same place throughout the week, but this first time was stellar. The salsa was unbelievable. Will could eat it by the spoonful.
Sitting on the beach was so relaxing. Great weather, drinks on the beach side, this was paradise. We took a lot of pictures today, walking around the beach. Too bad we didn't bring a camera on the snorkeling trip yesterday, I would've loved to have taken some pictures there.
I didn't put enough sunscreen on and ended up having a slight burn on my shoulders and chest. We spent the entire afternoon in the sun on the beach.
For dinner we went to downtown Los Palmas (sp?). Dinner was great, I love the food here in Puerto Vallarta. I was expecting to eat tacos and burritos all week, but I was totally wrong.
After dinner we walked around downtown, everywhere we walked we were harassed by people trying to sell to us tours, time shares, taxi rides, tittie bars. Yes people were trying to get us to go to strip clubs. I think they make commission. 'Taxi?' "No thanks" 'Tittie bars?'
Before we ate dinner we bumped into this kid named Devin. First impression this guy looks young, yet here he was talking to us about clubs and drinking, and where all the girls were going to be. We told him that we were planning on going to Senor Frogs (a pub / club) but he told us to go to Collage instead. There was a foam party happening at Collage. I told him he looked young and he said he was 14.
We didn't listen to Devin, so we went to Senor Frogs anyways. Senor Frogs was a nice place, right at the entrance they had girls greeting you then take you by the arm to sit down. At Senor Frogs a bunch of people were dancing on the floor while hip hop was being blasted. We bought a round of Sol for around $4 a pop, which is eight times more expensive then at Oxxo. After a couple of songs, a live band took the floor and that's when we left.
We cabbed back to the hotel first, why I don't remember. But that's when we met our favorite cabbie: Rodriguez. Super friendly cabbie, told us about the 'attractions' and gave us a good price.
From the hotel we made our way to Collage via taxi, and some kid (he looked 8) opened our door, and when we didn't tip him he looked like he wanted to head butt us. We paid the $30 cover charge and went in. $30 came with an open bar (sold!) but the bar was swarmed. I waited 10-15 minutes at the bar before I got my first drink.
We found a table to sit at, I was DD (wasn't driving, but I had to get everyone back to the hotel in one piece). Collage was packed, all with young people as well. Girls in bikinis, guys in board shorts, an endless stream of foam flowing from the ceiling. The main dance floor, which was steps down compared to everywhere else (think coliseum style), was a cesspool of tightly packed bodies. We all had shoes, but Shum, Will, and Julio all jumped into the pool of foam without worries. Costa being the genius that he is took his shoes and socks off and walked around barefoot.
I think I ended up drinking 7 cups of beer, Costa claims to have drank 10, but who can trust a guy walking around barefoot? After a few hours of dancing, they cleared the dance floor. They were going to have a wet t-shirt contest. Girls representing Canada, US, and hometown Mexico. Everyone cheered for their respective country, until the 'Take it off!' chants started, everyone took part in the 'Take it off!' chants no matter which girl was on. The girl from Mexico ended up winning based on the volume of cheering, but surprisingly the crowd seemed to be evenly distributed.
Costa having apparently drank 10 beers tried to talk to the Canada girl, told her he thought she should've won (in other words: you looked the best in a wet t-shirt). Didn't turn out to be anything, but you have to give the man props for doing that.
After we left Collage, we decided to walk back to the hotel, save ourselves $10. Costa issued a challenge to all of us, he wanted to race us running backwards, maybe he did have 10 beers? He ran backwards for quite a while until we yelled at him.
Back at the hotel Costa said he'd take a shower in the morning, claimed he didn't need to shower right now. I would've dragged him into the shower myself if he didn't go willingly, walking around barefoot is just plain disgusting.
It didn't take too long for me to fall asleep after I showered, I pretty much went into deep sleep before my head was on the pillow. I'm a fantastic DD.
Puerto Vallarta - The Real Trip Begins
Day 2
The sun shone with a beautiful glow. A great way to wake up in the morning. After getting ready we rode the bus to the location of the boat that would take us to the snorkeling site. You don't need coffee in Puerto Vallarta, just take the bus.
We passed by some sort of government / embassy building and noticed that they had soldiers positioned there, holding some sort of automatic guns, not something you see everyday.
We were told the trip would start at 10am, we arrived at roughly 9:30am and walked around to pass the time. While there we took pictures with what I assume is some sort of Gigantic Sea Cow. The pictures weren't free, they take the picture and when you get back from the trip they'll sell it to you.
The boat didn't come until around 11am, so we sat around for an hour wondering if Manini had cheated us. When the boat finally came, there was a decent line-up to get on, I'd say around 30 people. The boat was large enough to hold all of us, the bathroom I was told, was disgusting.
The crew aboard the boat were all very friendly, and outgoing, too bad I can't say the same about the passengers who were mostly families. Being in an awkward situation we did what we could to make it less awkward, we abused the open bar. We started taking shots of tequila, and then we challenged the crew members to shots of tequila. They taught us some chant to say before we drank. I don't remember the chant, it went something like [hold the shot high] 'Arriba!' [hold it down] 'some weird chant' [hold it outwards] 'Centro!' [hold it towards you] 'Amigo?' My memories shot. In fact parts of this whole day are shot from my memory.
Before we arrived at the snorkeling site they handed us the snorkeling gear. One of the crew members had a rubbermaid like bin with the gear, and a bucket of soapy water next to it. Take the gear, dump it in soapy water, pass it to whoever wants it. They need to ease up on their sanitation standards here in Mexico, they're a little too strict.
The water at the snorkeling site was horrible you could tell it was horrible by looking at it, it was green and murky. Not wanting to put the gross snorkeling tube in my mouth I half had it in before I got in the water. What a mistake. This was salt water mixed with manure. I felt like I had vomit in my mouth, someone else's vomit. Manini you punk! You cheated us! Good visibility? I couldn't see my feet! Tropical fishes? Rotting fishes maybe!
We waddled around for I think 15 minutes then got back on the boat. I somehow cut myself getting back on the boat and my foot was bleeding. Luckily I didn't get any infections. Back on the boat we drank some more. Julio was looking tipsy, and Will was more red then my foot. But man was I ever messed up. The boat stopped for lunch at some beach. As we got to the restaurant I remember petting a dog that looked like it was dying, I remember sitting down and tasting the food. Next thing I remember I was puking in the washroom. I felt bad as I left the washroom as there were kids waiting to use the bathroom.
I have no idea what happened for the next hour or so. I somehow ended up in some shade on the beach, next thing I know Julio hands me a busted open green coconut, and I drank the juice from it. The juice was nasty, it was warm. Then some more time passed by and I ended up in the water (keep in mind I can't swim). I remember everything from that point on but the previous 2 hours (or what I assume was 2 hours) I blanked out.
On the beach there was this guy sitting on a banana boat and he yelled: 'Hey Tequila Boys, get on, let's go!' Apparently the whole boat knew us as the Tequila Boys. It was weird that a shirtless man was telling us to get on a banana boat with him, but I was proud of the name that was given to us, the Tequila Boys. We started talking to a few people on the boat. Julio was talking to a girl with a zebra printed bikini and had a red shawl wrapped around her. Julio can't remember her name (HAR HAR) but her brother's name is Ebi. I don't remember much, but I remember Ebi's a good man, who swam with his shirt on, and his sister was pretty hot, HA HA Julio.
Back on the boat the crew continued their shenanigans. They came around with some alcoholic drink in a squirt bottle and a sombrero. Passengers took turns trying to drink as much as they could from the bottle. I ended up getting it all over my shirt. My poor salt water, sand splattered, alcohol drenched shirt.
Near the end of the trip the crew tried to get people to play another game, a couples game. No one wanted to play so they grabbed me and Shum. The game basically had the guy grabbing balloons and then popping it using their partner via hugging, sitting and doggy style thrusting. Luckily me and Shum had girls to pair up with. The whole time my partner kept telling me 'I don't want to do the last one.' So still drunk I suggested she thrust me. I'm such a moron.
I went first, popped the first two balloons with one go, and on the third my partner grabbed the balloon and doggy thrusted me. I'm such a tool. Shum and his partner went next. He had trouble doing the doggy trust, he couldn't pop the balloon after repeated thrusts, so a crew member "backed him" up. I think Shum wasn't thrusting properly, I think he just wanted to get a few in there, being the opportunistic person that he is. The last couple that went was Todd and Shannon, a couple attending USC in California (at least I think it's USC). They ended up having the fastest time, and they won a bottle of tequila.
We've been talking to Todd and Shannon throughout the trip and after we got off the boat they said they wanted to share the tequila with us, so we agreed to meet up for dinner.
We met up at Todd and Shannon's room at Fiesta Americana, where we took a couple shots of tequila and viewed some of their pictures, before heading to La Dolce Vita for dinner. Great restaurant, we had some pasta style dishes. I was talking to Todd about his side job, fixing BMW's and manufacturing carbon fiber stuff. While everyone else was talking politics, weird.
After dinner we headed to Hilo (pub/club) for more drinks. Shum somehow grew a set of balls the size of coconuts and went up to some random cute girl and asked her to dance. She was sitting at a table with her friends. Shum doesn't need a wingman, he just needs alcohol. We think the girl had a boyfriend, or what looked like a boyfriend, but he showed up after the dancing. Good way to get yourself killed Shum.
After drinking, we said our byes to Todd and Shannon, this was their last day in Puerto Vallarta, and we went back to our room. Despite the crappy snorkeling, the trip was worth $35 with the meals, open bar, and with meeting new people. Going on these tourism trips is probably the best way to meet new people. This was a great second day especially compared to the first.
If you're reading this Manini, you're lucky it was an open bar, if it wasn't for the open bar, we would've come tear you a new one.
The sun shone with a beautiful glow. A great way to wake up in the morning. After getting ready we rode the bus to the location of the boat that would take us to the snorkeling site. You don't need coffee in Puerto Vallarta, just take the bus.
We passed by some sort of government / embassy building and noticed that they had soldiers positioned there, holding some sort of automatic guns, not something you see everyday.
We were told the trip would start at 10am, we arrived at roughly 9:30am and walked around to pass the time. While there we took pictures with what I assume is some sort of Gigantic Sea Cow. The pictures weren't free, they take the picture and when you get back from the trip they'll sell it to you.
The boat didn't come until around 11am, so we sat around for an hour wondering if Manini had cheated us. When the boat finally came, there was a decent line-up to get on, I'd say around 30 people. The boat was large enough to hold all of us, the bathroom I was told, was disgusting.
The crew aboard the boat were all very friendly, and outgoing, too bad I can't say the same about the passengers who were mostly families. Being in an awkward situation we did what we could to make it less awkward, we abused the open bar. We started taking shots of tequila, and then we challenged the crew members to shots of tequila. They taught us some chant to say before we drank. I don't remember the chant, it went something like [hold the shot high] 'Arriba!' [hold it down] 'some weird chant' [hold it outwards] 'Centro!' [hold it towards you] 'Amigo?' My memories shot. In fact parts of this whole day are shot from my memory.
Before we arrived at the snorkeling site they handed us the snorkeling gear. One of the crew members had a rubbermaid like bin with the gear, and a bucket of soapy water next to it. Take the gear, dump it in soapy water, pass it to whoever wants it. They need to ease up on their sanitation standards here in Mexico, they're a little too strict.
The water at the snorkeling site was horrible you could tell it was horrible by looking at it, it was green and murky. Not wanting to put the gross snorkeling tube in my mouth I half had it in before I got in the water. What a mistake. This was salt water mixed with manure. I felt like I had vomit in my mouth, someone else's vomit. Manini you punk! You cheated us! Good visibility? I couldn't see my feet! Tropical fishes? Rotting fishes maybe!
We waddled around for I think 15 minutes then got back on the boat. I somehow cut myself getting back on the boat and my foot was bleeding. Luckily I didn't get any infections. Back on the boat we drank some more. Julio was looking tipsy, and Will was more red then my foot. But man was I ever messed up. The boat stopped for lunch at some beach. As we got to the restaurant I remember petting a dog that looked like it was dying, I remember sitting down and tasting the food. Next thing I remember I was puking in the washroom. I felt bad as I left the washroom as there were kids waiting to use the bathroom.
I have no idea what happened for the next hour or so. I somehow ended up in some shade on the beach, next thing I know Julio hands me a busted open green coconut, and I drank the juice from it. The juice was nasty, it was warm. Then some more time passed by and I ended up in the water (keep in mind I can't swim). I remember everything from that point on but the previous 2 hours (or what I assume was 2 hours) I blanked out.
On the beach there was this guy sitting on a banana boat and he yelled: 'Hey Tequila Boys, get on, let's go!' Apparently the whole boat knew us as the Tequila Boys. It was weird that a shirtless man was telling us to get on a banana boat with him, but I was proud of the name that was given to us, the Tequila Boys. We started talking to a few people on the boat. Julio was talking to a girl with a zebra printed bikini and had a red shawl wrapped around her. Julio can't remember her name (HAR HAR) but her brother's name is Ebi. I don't remember much, but I remember Ebi's a good man, who swam with his shirt on, and his sister was pretty hot, HA HA Julio.
Back on the boat the crew continued their shenanigans. They came around with some alcoholic drink in a squirt bottle and a sombrero. Passengers took turns trying to drink as much as they could from the bottle. I ended up getting it all over my shirt. My poor salt water, sand splattered, alcohol drenched shirt.
Near the end of the trip the crew tried to get people to play another game, a couples game. No one wanted to play so they grabbed me and Shum. The game basically had the guy grabbing balloons and then popping it using their partner via hugging, sitting and doggy style thrusting. Luckily me and Shum had girls to pair up with. The whole time my partner kept telling me 'I don't want to do the last one.' So still drunk I suggested she thrust me. I'm such a moron.
I went first, popped the first two balloons with one go, and on the third my partner grabbed the balloon and doggy thrusted me. I'm such a tool. Shum and his partner went next. He had trouble doing the doggy trust, he couldn't pop the balloon after repeated thrusts, so a crew member "backed him" up. I think Shum wasn't thrusting properly, I think he just wanted to get a few in there, being the opportunistic person that he is. The last couple that went was Todd and Shannon, a couple attending USC in California (at least I think it's USC). They ended up having the fastest time, and they won a bottle of tequila.
We've been talking to Todd and Shannon throughout the trip and after we got off the boat they said they wanted to share the tequila with us, so we agreed to meet up for dinner.
We met up at Todd and Shannon's room at Fiesta Americana, where we took a couple shots of tequila and viewed some of their pictures, before heading to La Dolce Vita for dinner. Great restaurant, we had some pasta style dishes. I was talking to Todd about his side job, fixing BMW's and manufacturing carbon fiber stuff. While everyone else was talking politics, weird.
After dinner we headed to Hilo (pub/club) for more drinks. Shum somehow grew a set of balls the size of coconuts and went up to some random cute girl and asked her to dance. She was sitting at a table with her friends. Shum doesn't need a wingman, he just needs alcohol. We think the girl had a boyfriend, or what looked like a boyfriend, but he showed up after the dancing. Good way to get yourself killed Shum.
After drinking, we said our byes to Todd and Shannon, this was their last day in Puerto Vallarta, and we went back to our room. Despite the crappy snorkeling, the trip was worth $35 with the meals, open bar, and with meeting new people. Going on these tourism trips is probably the best way to meet new people. This was a great second day especially compared to the first.
If you're reading this Manini, you're lucky it was an open bar, if it wasn't for the open bar, we would've come tear you a new one.
Puerto Vallarta - Roughtimes Onward to Paradise
It's been just over a week since I've gotten back from Puerto Vallarta. Here I am still reflecting on all the sites, all the sounds, all the memories. I'm sure these things will stick with me for a long long time. There are so many things that I can talk about, which rightfully deserve their own little posts: the food, the culture, the drinking, the people. This posting and the next few postings will detail my trip broken down in days.
Day 1
The day started off with a 4 hour shift at my part time job, I couldn't get the day off but my team leader was more then happy to send me home early. The gang took different paths to the Greyhound station, where we all met up at around 5:30pm. Everything up until now went smooth, a great way to start off a trip. I took notice that my luggage was surprisingly smaller compared to everyone else, but I didn't pack all that much and I had no intention of buying a whole lot while I was down there. The Greyhound ride down to Seattle wasn't too bad, a short snooze, and equipped with my Tom Clancy Rainbow Six book, the time went by relatively fast; over three hours.
We made a few pit stops, but ended up in downtown Seattle's Greyhound station close to midnight. In order to catch the downtown bus to the Seatac airport we had to sprint 5 blocks (+1 for small luggage). The bus ride was horrible, despite it being midnight the bus was packed, and the ride was long. We didn't know where to get off, and ended up getting off a stop too early. The early stop cost us $5 in taxi money, this would be the beginning of our taxi woes.
We weren't able to check in with the Seatac essentially closed from midnight until 5am. Starved from the bus ride and the 5 block sprint, Shum and Julio found a 24 hour restaurant not too far away called '13 Coins.' 13 Coins was nice enough to store our luggage for us while we ate; unfortunately the food wasn't too good, maybe it was the time that we went (2am), maybe we weren't used to US food, maybe we were just tired? Whatever the reason, most of us agreed not to go back (I mean all of us).
After a quick snooze we woke up at 5am and checked in for our flight (I was able to sleep despite drinking a medium sized coffee, says a lot about me, or the coffee). Within a few short hours we were on the plane on way to Puerto Vallarta! I'm lying, we were heading to Phoenix to catch a connecting flight, all to save a few hundred bucks on airfare. The airport at Phoenix was huge, complete with its own horizontal escalators. Spending roughly two hours there made us rethink the benefits of saving money by using connecting flights.
We finally got on the plane to Puerto Vallarta at around 1 (I think, I don't remember). Flying over Puerto Vallarta you can see the beach coast, where it meets the waves of water. You can't help but to have a smile on your face; that is until you step out of the plane. It was hot, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and I was sweating by the time I made it to the airport entrance from the tarmac.
Stepping out of the airport we were hounded by tourism people all asking us if we wanted to sign up for tours. Having done our research we politely declined and headed out the door. Out the door we were again hounded this time by taxi drivers: 'Where you go?' 'We're going to the Westin' 'Five people, 250 pesos' 'We'll give you 100 pesos' 'No, no no no no no.'
I'm not one for bargaining but 25 bucks to go 5 minutes is steep. We ended up walking a block away from the airport and got into a taxi that charged us 150 pesos ($15 US). The roads in Puerto Vallarta are horrible, it's not smooth pavement, it's big huge rocks mixed with cement. The speedbumps are monstrous, if Brandon was driving his Beamer there he'd cry.
Just outside of the Westin was a restaurant called 'Tacos and Beer' what a name, we made a mental note to try it before we leave. The view from our room was astounding. We could see the pool, and the beach, with clusters of 4-5 story high palm trees. This was going to be a great trip I thought.
We went to the local Oxxo (equivalent to 7-11) to get some drinks, we were enticed to buy Sol beer for $0.50, but ended up buying the Gatorade that was on special. The Gatorade got warm after 10 minutes.
We walked around looking for Vallarta Adventures which was supposed to be the biggest (and most trustworthy) Tourism place. Efforts went in vain as we wasted an hour plus looking for it. It was a great walk though, the palm trees along the streets had coconuts on them.
We walked to the Marina where we met Miguel Manini. We've been hounded by tourism people all day but Manini seemed genuine. He told us about all the tourism attractions he could hook us up with, and offered us great prices (albeit after some bargaining, I was beginning to get good at it). The selling point for me was that he told us he'd be at his stand everyday and that if the trip wasn't as he said we could come back and talk to him. We ended up signing up for one trip, the snorkeling trip for $35 US each, which included breakfast, lunch and an open bar (the other selling point for me).
We ended up taking the bus to the local Walmart after, to buy some clean water. The buses in Puerto Vallarta cost around $0.55 a person, which is way cheaper then taking the taxi. The buses had NO suspensions though, we felt every bump every pot hole, everything. On top of that the exit doors were open the whole time. People getting off the buses didn't even wait till the bus came to a full stop before they got out (women and children included). But we arrived to Walmart in one piece.
We bought some snacks, water, and some weird tequila baileys mix called 1921. Upon checking out though we realized that we weren't at Walmart, we were at Sam's club (think costco-esque warehouse store), this meant that we had to buy a membership. Carrying the groceries back to the hotel wasn't much of a problem, the bus that we took wasn't too full, and the groceries weighed us down from bouncing off the chairs.
We decided to eat at the on-site restaurant at the Westin that night, since Shum would get 50% off the dinner. The food was great, and it was nice to finally enjoy the trip as we spent most of the day running around.
Back at the room, we drank most of the 1921 bottle before lights out. We had to wake up early tomorrow for our snorkeling trip.
Day 1
The day started off with a 4 hour shift at my part time job, I couldn't get the day off but my team leader was more then happy to send me home early. The gang took different paths to the Greyhound station, where we all met up at around 5:30pm. Everything up until now went smooth, a great way to start off a trip. I took notice that my luggage was surprisingly smaller compared to everyone else, but I didn't pack all that much and I had no intention of buying a whole lot while I was down there. The Greyhound ride down to Seattle wasn't too bad, a short snooze, and equipped with my Tom Clancy Rainbow Six book, the time went by relatively fast; over three hours.
We made a few pit stops, but ended up in downtown Seattle's Greyhound station close to midnight. In order to catch the downtown bus to the Seatac airport we had to sprint 5 blocks (+1 for small luggage). The bus ride was horrible, despite it being midnight the bus was packed, and the ride was long. We didn't know where to get off, and ended up getting off a stop too early. The early stop cost us $5 in taxi money, this would be the beginning of our taxi woes.
We weren't able to check in with the Seatac essentially closed from midnight until 5am. Starved from the bus ride and the 5 block sprint, Shum and Julio found a 24 hour restaurant not too far away called '13 Coins.' 13 Coins was nice enough to store our luggage for us while we ate; unfortunately the food wasn't too good, maybe it was the time that we went (2am), maybe we weren't used to US food, maybe we were just tired? Whatever the reason, most of us agreed not to go back (I mean all of us).
After a quick snooze we woke up at 5am and checked in for our flight (I was able to sleep despite drinking a medium sized coffee, says a lot about me, or the coffee). Within a few short hours we were on the plane on way to Puerto Vallarta! I'm lying, we were heading to Phoenix to catch a connecting flight, all to save a few hundred bucks on airfare. The airport at Phoenix was huge, complete with its own horizontal escalators. Spending roughly two hours there made us rethink the benefits of saving money by using connecting flights.
We finally got on the plane to Puerto Vallarta at around 1 (I think, I don't remember). Flying over Puerto Vallarta you can see the beach coast, where it meets the waves of water. You can't help but to have a smile on your face; that is until you step out of the plane. It was hot, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and I was sweating by the time I made it to the airport entrance from the tarmac.
Stepping out of the airport we were hounded by tourism people all asking us if we wanted to sign up for tours. Having done our research we politely declined and headed out the door. Out the door we were again hounded this time by taxi drivers: 'Where you go?' 'We're going to the Westin' 'Five people, 250 pesos' 'We'll give you 100 pesos' 'No, no no no no no.'
I'm not one for bargaining but 25 bucks to go 5 minutes is steep. We ended up walking a block away from the airport and got into a taxi that charged us 150 pesos ($15 US). The roads in Puerto Vallarta are horrible, it's not smooth pavement, it's big huge rocks mixed with cement. The speedbumps are monstrous, if Brandon was driving his Beamer there he'd cry.
Just outside of the Westin was a restaurant called 'Tacos and Beer' what a name, we made a mental note to try it before we leave. The view from our room was astounding. We could see the pool, and the beach, with clusters of 4-5 story high palm trees. This was going to be a great trip I thought.
We went to the local Oxxo (equivalent to 7-11) to get some drinks, we were enticed to buy Sol beer for $0.50, but ended up buying the Gatorade that was on special. The Gatorade got warm after 10 minutes.
We walked around looking for Vallarta Adventures which was supposed to be the biggest (and most trustworthy) Tourism place. Efforts went in vain as we wasted an hour plus looking for it. It was a great walk though, the palm trees along the streets had coconuts on them.
We walked to the Marina where we met Miguel Manini. We've been hounded by tourism people all day but Manini seemed genuine. He told us about all the tourism attractions he could hook us up with, and offered us great prices (albeit after some bargaining, I was beginning to get good at it). The selling point for me was that he told us he'd be at his stand everyday and that if the trip wasn't as he said we could come back and talk to him. We ended up signing up for one trip, the snorkeling trip for $35 US each, which included breakfast, lunch and an open bar (the other selling point for me).
We ended up taking the bus to the local Walmart after, to buy some clean water. The buses in Puerto Vallarta cost around $0.55 a person, which is way cheaper then taking the taxi. The buses had NO suspensions though, we felt every bump every pot hole, everything. On top of that the exit doors were open the whole time. People getting off the buses didn't even wait till the bus came to a full stop before they got out (women and children included). But we arrived to Walmart in one piece.
We bought some snacks, water, and some weird tequila baileys mix called 1921. Upon checking out though we realized that we weren't at Walmart, we were at Sam's club (think costco-esque warehouse store), this meant that we had to buy a membership. Carrying the groceries back to the hotel wasn't much of a problem, the bus that we took wasn't too full, and the groceries weighed us down from bouncing off the chairs.
We decided to eat at the on-site restaurant at the Westin that night, since Shum would get 50% off the dinner. The food was great, and it was nice to finally enjoy the trip as we spent most of the day running around.
Back at the room, we drank most of the 1921 bottle before lights out. We had to wake up early tomorrow for our snorkeling trip.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
He'd play on crutches!
June 11th, 2008, twenty years to the date he was drafted, Trevor Linden announces his retirement. It takes a very special someone to be praised the way he has, despite having never won a cup.
Coincidentally it was June 11th, 1994 that game 6 of the '94 Stanley Cup playoffs was played in Vancouver. The game where the Canucks won 4-1 and the game where Messier cheap shotted Linden as he was crawling to the bench after an initial hit by Graves. Listening to the play by play by Jim Robson gives you a rush of adrenaline, it makes you want to get out there and play your heart out:
"There is going to be that seventh game. We'll hope they can patch Linden up and get him in that one. He will play, you know he'll play! He'd play on crutches! He will play, and he'll play at Madison Square Gardens on Tuesday night! The game is over!"
This quote by Jim Robson summarizes everything that Linden embodies: passion, perseverance, leader. No matter who else comes along, no matter how many goals he scores, how many points he gets, how many cups he wins in a Canucks uniform he won't be able to provide the memories that Linden's provided.
Young Trevor Linden took over as Captain at 21. What a stud. That jersey is the most beautiful jersey in NHL history, anyone who saw the Canucks play in those sweaters would not disagree with me.
I still remember this, Trevor Linden hoisting the Clarence Campbell over his head like it was the Stanley Cup, then having the lid fall off. Unlike all the other Captains now that are too scared to even touch it. Trevor Linden doesn't believe in superstition, superstition believes in Linden.
Trevor Linden leaning over Kirk McLean after winning game 6 at the Pacific Coliseum. You want evidence of the cheap shot by Messier, look at the blood on Linden's Jersey.
Here's a video of the famous call by Jim Robson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UktYaexJ7g&feature=related
There's so much more I can say about Trevor Linden, about his charity work, about being Mr. Clutch, about his statistics, about retiring his number, but everyone else has already said it. I'll end this post by saying: Thank you for the memories Trevor Linden, there will never be another Captain Canuck.
Coincidentally it was June 11th, 1994 that game 6 of the '94 Stanley Cup playoffs was played in Vancouver. The game where the Canucks won 4-1 and the game where Messier cheap shotted Linden as he was crawling to the bench after an initial hit by Graves. Listening to the play by play by Jim Robson gives you a rush of adrenaline, it makes you want to get out there and play your heart out:
"There is going to be that seventh game. We'll hope they can patch Linden up and get him in that one. He will play, you know he'll play! He'd play on crutches! He will play, and he'll play at Madison Square Gardens on Tuesday night! The game is over!"
This quote by Jim Robson summarizes everything that Linden embodies: passion, perseverance, leader. No matter who else comes along, no matter how many goals he scores, how many points he gets, how many cups he wins in a Canucks uniform he won't be able to provide the memories that Linden's provided.
Young Trevor Linden took over as Captain at 21. What a stud. That jersey is the most beautiful jersey in NHL history, anyone who saw the Canucks play in those sweaters would not disagree with me.
I still remember this, Trevor Linden hoisting the Clarence Campbell over his head like it was the Stanley Cup, then having the lid fall off. Unlike all the other Captains now that are too scared to even touch it. Trevor Linden doesn't believe in superstition, superstition believes in Linden.
Trevor Linden leaning over Kirk McLean after winning game 6 at the Pacific Coliseum. You want evidence of the cheap shot by Messier, look at the blood on Linden's Jersey.Here's a video of the famous call by Jim Robson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UktYaexJ7g&feature=related
There's so much more I can say about Trevor Linden, about his charity work, about being Mr. Clutch, about his statistics, about retiring his number, but everyone else has already said it. I'll end this post by saying: Thank you for the memories Trevor Linden, there will never be another Captain Canuck.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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