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…

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!

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!!!