On the other day, I learned a little bit about flower arrangement from my mother via MSN Messanger. She has practiced Japanese Ikebana for many years, so she was the best person to talk to. I bought flowers and a vase I wanted to arrange with. I showed it to her and she explained me about the differences between Ikebana and flower arrangement. Ikebana creates a ’space’ among flowers while flower arrangement ?fills the ’space’ with flowers and stems. As I went, I realized how important stems were because there were a lot of stems were needed to fill the space. I also learned about balance especially vertical balance. If the base is too big, it does not look right. Anyway, I made one with white lilies?and baby’s-breath?with nice green leaves.

Few days ago, I wanted to try again so I bought some flowers from a flower shop on Davie street where I usually go because they always have fresh flowers. (They last more than a wee, with regular water!!) I bought pink-ish lilies and other 2 kinds of flowers. Unfortunately I dont know what to call them…

Anyway, I did not do very good job on vertical balance this time but yellow flowers go well with pink?lilies I think. I will do better next time. Little by little…

I have been very busy studying. It has been really hard to wake up in a morning, so I asked Kyle to start to wake me up around 8:00-ish. That was a few days ago. He woke me up around 8:15 yesterday. It was very nice of him. I appreciated him very much.

And today, again, he woke me up around 8:30. I went to bed around 3:00, so I was still sleepy but I didn’t forget to thank him. I woke up, got ready checking time several times and went to the office.

It was raining and cold outside especially today. I got to the office and saw some spaces were still dark, no light. I was so proud of myself that I got to the office on time. Then I looked at the time on my phone.

It said 7:30. I thought my phone was broken. I checked my co-worker’s phone. It said 7:30…then I thought “Wait. Maybe I did not see the right time because I was too sleepy. YEAY, I have more time than I expected!”

Then I gave a second thought. “Wait. I am pretty sure that it said 8:50 when I left home. I looked at two different clocks and I believe both of them said 8:45 or 50.”

How did that heppen???

Then I recalled that my co-worker was talking about April fool’s day. And I realized that this must be something that Kyle did to me!! However, I still had a little bit doubt. So I emailed Kyle and asked him if I was crazy. And he emailed me back and said,

“Happy April fool’s day!”

Damn you, Kyle!!!

Yumi did well showshoeing up Cypress Mountain. She made it most of the way without her ski poles. We were having so much fun we didn’t even notice it was past the time when we should turn back. On our way back we took a short-cut through the skiing hills instead of the snowshoe paths and got a bit lost, but we arrived in time to catch the 5:00pm bus. It was a 4 hour hike, we would’ve prefered a 3 hour version. The last hour was brutal, but we’d definately do it again. The base when we arrived was 29cm of fresh powder from the night before and it was snowing the entire time we were there. It was excellent!

We had a trip to Banff for our birthdays.

Banff is very wild!! We loved it.

Pictures will be available very soon!!

We went to a Kathy and Gourove’s wedding yesterday. Kathy is from Iran and Gourove is from Kuwait. The reception was held in English and another language. Both of us didnt have any clue what language they were speaking. It sounded like French. The reception was very beautiful and joyful. Lot of people were dancing and drinking. We had a lot of fun. “Omedeto” or Congratulations, Gourove and Kathy!

We moved into a new apartment on april 1st. It is a high rise condo and we live on 29th floor. View from our place is just stanning. Now we can enjoy the beautiful daytime view and romantic night view every day!

Today, we went to an ice hockey game. It was my first time to watch a game at an arena. The game was held at the GM place which is an arena close to our apartment. At the arena, we cheered for our team, which were Canucks, they are the home team of the city of Vancouver.

In our last apartment, I would always become frustrated with loud cars honking in celebration after the Canucks won a game. After attending my first ice hockey game, I can forgive their loud noises and I can appreciate their enthusiasm.

I had never watched a game at an arena in Japan and I had no idea how Japanese people cheered for their teams, but here in Vancouver, people say “boo! boo!” in a very low intonation just like a pig (For non-Japanese people, you should understand in our culture it is common for pigs vocalization to sound like boo-boo instead of oink-oink). The crowd would boo especially when the opponent team (St. Louis) shot at the Canucks goal. I really enjoyed hearing that sound (because it made me think of pigs).

Vancouver Canucks have their own brand of cheering: “Go Canucks Go!” and “We are all Canucks!” I heard both these cheers during this game.

The game started with American anthem and then Canadian,”OH! CANADA”. I was familiar with the American anthem but not the Canadian. It was a great experience to hear people sing the Canadian anthem.

The game has 3 periods of 20 minutes. The score was 2:2 at the end of the game. The game went into Over Time for 5 minutes then they had a Shoot Out. During the Shoot Out, the third player of the Canucks, Sedin took one shot and scored. The St. Louis team didn’t score. Canacks won!!!!!! Congratulations, Canucks!!!

We had a guest, Mark and his girlfriend, Jenny. We had a nice chat together. After we had some beer, we went up to the roof top of our apartment. It is very beautiful place especially in summer. We had a couple of beer there enjoying the sunset.

Yumi has some special Japanese rules for all our friends and family who join us for dinner.

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