Rain, rain, rain...
After it being freezing cold here, and having snow on the ground for a whole week, it's finally started to rain again. And, along with the rain, comes the warmer weather! In fact, it's so warm that I could probably wear a t-shirt outside during the day, and not freeze to death. There's some tropical winds that are blowing up from the south, and over from Hawaii. They call it the Pineapple Express.
We've actually had so much rain and wind that there has been some flooding. Our power even went out at home for 2 hours this morning.

Passed Away...
I just got a letter from the Margaret's niece, an old family friend. It turns out that Margaret passed away in November. Margaret and my grandmother were best friends back in their early 20's (they were both Scottish and worked at Emerald Lake in the Rocky Mountains). My grandmother passed away of cancer before I was born, and so Margaret became my sister's godmother.
We used to visit her every Christmas, in Vancouver. All of us looked forward to the visits. She went blind at a very young age, and the doctors believe that it was a virus from unpasturized milk. I remember that she could recite the Lord's Prayer in Gaelic (the language in Scotland, before English).
I was quite shocked when I learned that she had passed on, and am sad that I wasn't able to attend her funeral.

The Homunculus...
We learned about a funky (now defunct) theory in Developmental Biology this week, called the Preformation Theory. Basically, in the 1800's people thought that we were preformed, meaning that we were fully formed in our fathers' sperm. This "mini-me" was called the "homunculus".

Scientists believe that the homunculus in the sperm just needed to be implanted in an egg, which acted like soil for the growth of the human. It's interesting to learn about some of the old theories, that people thought were true for many years. It makes you wonder about some of the things we believe now...

Thai Princess Visits Vancouver...
One of the Thai princesses, Chulabhorn, is in Vancouver at the moment on vacation. She's staying at an expensive hotel in Vancouver, and is planning on going skiing at Whistler.
I don't care if she decides to vacation here or not (although I'm glad that she likes this region of the world -she's been here several times before), but the timing of her vacation isn't the best. There's still finding bodies of people on the beaches in Thailand, and she's having mineral water steamed veggies after skiing.
On a related note, I found out yesterday that a friend of mine had family and friends of friends in Sri Lanka that got swept out to sea during the tsunami.

First Day of Classes...
One thing that's always worried me, but luckily that's never happened (yet).
But, on the first day of classes, in my Advanced French Conversation course, that happened to some poor guy. Before class started, about half the students were speaking to each other in English, and the other half in French. Knowing that there's a tiny (almost non-existent) Francophone population here, you think that might be your first clue that you're in a French class. Maybe.
Then the prof comes in, a bit late, and starts speaking to the class in French. He was introducing himself, and a bit about the course, when this guy walks up to the front of the class to leave. Keep in mind that this is about 5 minutes into class. The prof asked him, en francais, if he was in the right class. He just looked blankly at the prof. Then the prof repeated the question, and the guy said, "yah, I don't think this is history." Oh, that would be embarrassing. But all of us in the class got a good laugh out of it!

Snow on the Ground...
There's still snow on the ground here. It's been about five days now (the snow first appeared on Thursday). There hasn't been any new white stuff since Friday, but it's been so cold that nothing has really melted. Supposedly it might snow tomorrow. Or then again, it could rain.

Hero...
I finally watched the film Hero with Jet Li last night, and loved it. I first wanted to see it when I was in France last year, but missed it at the cinema by one day (they had just pulled it the night I finally went out to see it). Then it came out in North America this year, but I didn't get to see it until I rented it last night on DVD.
It's a Chinese film, about four assassins (I hope I didn't spoil the plot), and their plan to assassinate the king. The cinematography was absolutely stunning, and the fight scenes were reminiscent of those in Crouching Tiger. The colours were incredibly vivid (colour plays an important part in the film), as were the locations where it was all shot. I'll probably watch it again tonight before I have to return it tomorrow.
I also bought Run Lola Run with Franka Potente (also in Bourne Identity/Supremacy) on DVD yesterday for $7.99+tax (about 6 Euros or 6 USD total). It's probably my favourite German film, although Good Bye Lenin! is pretty good too. Run Lola is basically three vignettes, showing how changing one thing can dramatically alter the outcome of the overall event. As one guy from the National Post put it, "Run Lola Run is like Viagra for the eyeballs... The most thrilling and creative film I have ever seen!"

Bumming Around Vancouver...
I headed into Richmond on Tuesday, after a tutoring gig, to visit Jonathan. We were neighbours and best friends when we went to elementary school, and I still lived in Richmond. We went for dinner at Kisamos, a Greek restaurant in Steveston (which was excellent by the way), then headed into Vancouver for some bubble tea. I love BBT, and I don't know why. I wish there was one out this way (there was, but it shut down because there wasn't enough business).
On Wednesday morning I went into Vancouver to visit Sophia, who's back from U of Montreal for Christmas. She was an English assistant in Lille, and who happened to live on the same floor of the MAJT with me. (As a side note, she finally got her deposit money back, after requesting it when she left in late April. They cheque was dated early July, the letter mid-September, and the letter posted December 16th. A few more days, and the cheque would be invalid, because you can only cash them within 6 months of the date on the cheque.) We went for lunch, and had many cups of tea.
Later in the afternoon, I headed out to UBC (University of British Columbia) to visit Robin, who went to my uni for two years before transferring out. After chatting for a bit, we made a Dairy Queen run with several of her housemates, for blizzards (which is odd, considering how cold it was, and that it snowed the next day...).

It's Snowing!!!
It's snowing today (right now), and it's supposed to snow tomorrow as well. And possibly through the weekend (if it doesn't rain...). There's probably already one centimetre on the ground, and counting.
Canada beat Russia 6-1 in the World Junior Hockey Championships, winning the gold medal! The 2006 Championships, next year, are going to be held in Vancouver (and environs).

Undoing Christmas...
Yesterday was spent mainly taking down all the Christmas decorations that went up about 2 months ago. We finally took down the stupid Christmas tree. It was pretty much dead when we got it, and had hardly any needles left when we took it down yesterday. Pathetic, I know. Then today we took down all the Christmas lights. The house looks kind of bare at the moment.
Korean food for lunch today. Mmmmmmm...

A New Year
New Years has come and gone, finally. Not much has really happened. I've been a lazy ass these past two weeks.
I hung out with Marlin, a friend from high school, on Wednesday. Went for coffee with Sheila, another friend from high school that I haven't seen in ages, on Thursday. Work on Friday (New Years Eve) morning at the office where I worked in the summer. Yesterday I went to the big family (my dad's Scottish side) get-together. It's been two years since I've seen any of my 2nd cousins, or great-aunts and uncles, but no one has changed. Apart from my 2nd cousin Carl's little boy, and the fact that the mother walked away, leaving the kid. She didn't even call, write, or send a gift over Christmas. What a witch...
I watched "The Pianist" not too long ago. It's a great movie, but terribly sad and tragic. It's amazing that Wladyslaw Szpilman, the real-life pianist on which the movie is based, managed to survive the war. Especially when almost everyone else in the movie dies, including all his family, most of the Polish resistance that helped him when he escaped the Warsaw Ghetto, and a lot of the city itself. It certainly makes you appreciate your freedom, but it also shows that there is hope in times of trial. For example, the German officer who gave him food, after hearing him play piano.