from vancouver

On the Yonge subway line in Toronto, there's this one part of the track that suddenly opens up and runs outside, just between Eglinton and Davisville. You're constantly expecting the dim clack-clack-clack but then there's a burst of light and greenery, rough brick neighbourhoods and low-rise commerce. My life feels a little bit like that right now.

new D&G glasses. hoo-rah.

i got that lefty curse
Originally uploaded by viva_skyblue.

The Read My Mind remix album by the Killers is amazing, who would have thought one pretty decent song could be spun in 10 different ways? I am boggled, albeit digging the Pet Shop Boys radio edit remix. What else is new in the world of piracy? I procured one of Dane Cook's CDs which I already listened to a few months back - "Vicious Circle" - because homeboy is the only comedian who can make me literally laugh out loud, even if I'm in public listening on my iPod.

Anyway, here's what's important.

THINGS I WILL INEVITABLY MISS ABOUT CANADA*:

- Tim Horton's bitter sludge (this may or may not include Iced Capps and Rrrroll up the Rrrrim)
- Hockey night in Canada (which I never actually watched, but boy, will I miss channel surfing past it!)
- Chapter's and it's thorough selection of Stephen King paperbacks
- Chilly summer days
- My parents (they will read this within the next week or so, so, you know)
- My cat and his jaw-cracking yawns and mutterings
- Toronto (no other city will be loved as fiercely as I love the t-dot)
- Canadian television (CBC news - I love finding out about the latest Scarborough waterpipe crisis! also Slice...oh Slice, I hardly knew thee. And Comedy I guess, how else am I supposed to watch Family Guy and South Park back to back? I ask you.)
- Canadian literature, oh wait, the more miles between myself and that bitter mire of insecurity, death, and cynicism, the better!
- The Muskoka-style restaurants of varying names (see: Turtle Jack's, Montana's, Loopy Joe's, Shoeless Mike's, and so forth) and accuracy, but all with one common goal: to look the most rustic and bear the most fake antlers.
- Zeller's, the Bay, and it's various derivatives.
- Those Canadian Tire commercials. Come on.
- TBS Superstation. Not Canadian, but still an integral part of daily life here.
- Long expanses of manurey fields, highways like twisting ribbons, the occasional moose being ridden by a mountie on his way to a beaver dam.
- Fresca! I truly hope this drink exists in China, or else I will be done for.

THINGS I WILL INEVITABLY NOT MISS ABOUT CANADA:

- Dalton McGuinty.


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* subject to change.

Endings, beginnings, and in-betweens.

Two things happened today: I turned 21, and my great aunt - Tante Louisette - was buried. I will always remember my 21st birthday because I flew to Montreal in the morning with my mom for the visitation and funeral. She armed me with only one phrase for my grieving relatives: "mes sympaties". That phrase rolled around my mouth about fifty times and I think anytime I was introduced to anyone, I just blurted it out. I'm a little surprised out waitress at L'Oufarie didn't hear it too. The casket was open which shouldn't have shocked me, but as I stared down at the face of this corpse - this 90-something year old woman who once held me when I was a baby - I could really only think how disrespectful it was to have her lying out like that, poisoning everyone's final memories of her. The funeral itself was a bit better. I'd never attended a Catholic funeral mass - let alone in French - but it was good. I liked the comfort of old, worn-in rituals and the burn of incense. It's not familiar, but it's like a pat on the shoulder, a final "it's okay."

I'm moving to China in eight days. I alternate between absolute terror, extreme sadness, and elation/excitement. I keep trying to rationalize these feelings and how it will be when I'm there, but I really can't imagine it. I'm already getting that hollow feeling of missing my family, deep-rooted in my chest and prodding at my heart. I wonder if that feeling ever really goes away, no matter how old you are.

My ESL job is in a city called Hangzhou, about two hours out from Shanghai. I will chronicle the experience in here, hopefully with accompanying pictures and youtubes so my family can keep tabs on my daily life for the next year.

Hi, guys.

Oh yeah - the music that is moving me more than anything right now: the new Elliott Smith. Let's just hope he continues to pull a Tupac and keeps cropping up with albums long after his death. Viva Makiavelliott! Anyway, the album is called "New Moon" and so far the best tracks are Either Or, New Monkey, Fear City, and Thirteen. Actually all of them are fantastic in ways that XO weren't, so, that's that.