Nanaimo

Where We Stayed in Vancouver.

Today was a travel day – we moved out of Vancouver and took a bus to Horseshoe Bay, where we boarded the ferry to Nanaimo. The two-hour journey went over very quickly, because the ferry is equipped with all kinds of facilities. We drank some lovely hot chocolate – again – and chilled out watching the view on the way. We were picked up from the ferry terminal by Professor Steve Lane, at whose house we will be staying here in Nanaimo. 

View from the Ferry to Nanaimo.

Aboard the Ferry.

We were greeted warmly by the family, two very friendly dopey-eyed Labradors, and a fluffy cat. After settling in, we took a stroll around the neighbourhood and walked a bit along the beach. We ended the day with a delicious Mexican dinner prepared by Professor Lane. 

Chilling Out and Looking at Nanaimo's Attractions.

It's a nice change to have a slow, relaxing day after the intensity of Vancouver, but it won't last long - tomorrow we're heading off to the university and starting our research, so very soon our hands - and minds! - will be pleasantly busy again. :) 

Gardens and Totem Poles

After yesterday’s excitement anything would sound less glamorous in comparison, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We started off with a little sojourn to a different country, which we found two streets away from our hostel. Situated in China Town, which you can enter through an impressive gate, is Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s Chinese Garden, a little bit of China tucked away among the skyscrapers of Downtown Vancouver. The classic garden and the adjoining park are the first establishment of this kind outside of China. It’s a lovely place with beautiful pavilions and haunting willows – a calm oasis in the middle of the urban hustle-bustle. 

A Beautiful Pavilion in the Chinese Garden, China Town.

At noon we took a bus to UBC, where we were scheduled to participate in a lecture by Professor Jerry Wasserman. The class took place at the Chan Center for the Performing Arts, in a movie theatre, no less, and was a discussion of Samuel Beckett’s play, Endgame. This time, we came prepared, and it was a real pleasure to listen to Professor Wasserman’s impassioned interpretation of the text. 

The Chan Center of the Performing Arts, UBC.

After the class, we went to the UBC bookstore and browsed a bit through the shelves with critical works, all the while bemoaning the airplane luggage weight restrictions. Later, we got a bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant (in keeping with the day’s theme), and headed for the bus loop to return Downtown, from where we took a transfer to Stanley Park. Unfortunately, it was already too late to visit the Aquarium, but we still had a pleasant stroll in this beautiful green place with gigantic trees. It’s a real wonder that a park this size is situated so close to a big city. :)

A Friendly Squirrel in Stanley Park.

What was most interesting about Stanley Park were the Totem Poles we found near the shore. They were moved here from Alert Bay, where we’re going in two weeks’ time. Every time we mention this fact to anyone here in Canada, we get gasps of wonder and excited exclamations in return. We’re only just now realizing the magnitude of our trip, making us even more excited than before, if that’s even possible. :D

The Totem Poles in Stanley Park.

A Lovely View on Downtown Vancouver.

Urban Mountains

Wow. Where to start? I wonder if I can even find the words. :D

At urban ink office, Downtown Vancouver.

First of all, we spent the early afternoon at the urban ink office in Downtown Vancouver, where, thanks to the kindness of Diane Roberts, the Artistic Director,  we were able to browse through the archives and learn more about their past projects and performances. We also talked to Diane about her current work, the Arrivals Project, a workshop series focusing on the subjects of Ancestry and Personal Legacy and how they feature in the works of Indigenous and cross-cultural artists. Afterwards, we met with Rosemary Georgeson, urban ink’s Aboriginal Community Director, who told us a lot about her project “From WhereWe Speak” and its positive impact on the lives of young Indigenous people, who learned how to better express themselves and how to speak about troubling issues.  The project inspired many of the youths to make more of their lives and to further their education at university. Our two hours at urban ink were extremely fruitful and we are very thankful to the team for such a warm welcome. 

At urban ink office  with Rosemary Georgeson.

At urban ink office with Diane Roberts and Rosemary Georgeson.

After leaving urban ink we took the sea bus to North Vancouver, where we were picked up by our Polish Canadian friend, who was very intent on taking us on a mountain trip. We began with a short and pleasant trek to the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, which was amazing on itself, but pales in comparison to what awaited us later. What’s interesting, during our walk we met a family who greeted us in Polish, because they recognized our language. Turns out one of them had family in Poland, and they went on their honeymoon to Gdansk. :D

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.

After the Suspension Bridge we went to GrouseMountain, where we had a quick lunch before setting off for the peak. We didn’t really make it to the top, but the trip itself was beyond amazing. At first it started pretty non-threatening, with a bit of trekking on beaten snow, but then it turned really exciting. We plowed through knee-deep snowdrifts to find the best spot for observing a sunset over Vancouver Island. I’m not going to exaggerate if I say that hundreds of photos were taken. For us Poles, it’s really quite stunning to see a big city, high mountains and the ocean combined in one place!

How Can You Not Love This?

Grouse Mountain After Dark.

We also had a chance to see a documentary on two resident Grizzly Bears, Grinder and Coola, who are rescued bears kept in a protective area on Grouse Mountain. Every year, when the bears wake up from their hibernation, they are greeted by many cheering fans. You can observe them at all times thanks to cameras installed in their den.

Pretty Self-Explanatory.

The excitement of the day ended with the best hot chocolate in Vancouver, which we drank while admiring the beautiful lights of the city below.

Lovely Lights of Vancouver, With Vancouver Island in the Background.

University of British Columbia

A View on North Vancouver and the Mountains.

We began our day by setting off in search of MacLeod’s Books - the biggest used bookstore in Vancouver. We browsed through their haphazard, staggering stacks of paperbacks and came out very satisfied with their Canadian literature section, but thoroughly disgusted with the complete lack of critical texts on offer. Burdened with books, we took a stroll around Downtown, happy to finally see some sunlight and bits of the mountainous landscape in between the skyscrapers (which is not something you get to see every day, because even though it’s generally quite a bit warmer here than in Poland, the sky is usually overcast and it rains a lot, so the mountain tops are hidden behind heavy clouds). 

UBC Campus Sign Post. Yes, You Need Those.

Around noon we took a bus to the University of British Columbia, which is situated immediately on the coast and is a bit removed from the rest of Vancouver. The campus is like a small city, complete with its own sports centre and hospital. It’s an incredibly beautiful place: open, green and a bit mismatched, combining a multitude of architectural styles, from towering glass structures to quaint Victorian manors. It is no wonder that finding Buchanan Tower, where we were to attend a seminar of Dr Sherrill Grace, was a real challenge. 

Buchanan Tower, UBC.

The class itself was a treat and we were very warmly welcomed thanks to Dr Grace, who is a lovely, open person. It was a graduate seminar on Timothy Findley, a postmodern Canadian writer. Today we were discussing one of his novels, Not Wanted on the Voyage, which is a retelling of the story of Noah’s Arc, albeit with a twist. Here Noah is an authoritarian figure, abusing his position in the family, his wife smuggles her blind cat called Mottyl onboard, Ham’s wife, Lucy, a beautiful transvestite, is in fact Lucifer in disguise, unicorns are brutally killed, and the olive branch the dove brings from its flight comes from its cage on the Arc, and not from the promised land. The discussion that followed the presentation of one of the students was very lively and interesting, and it’s a real pity we couldn’t participate more, but none of us had read the book before, as we’ve only found out about it two days previously. 

Koerner Library, UBC.

In Front of Irving Learning Center, UBC.

After the class we spent at least half an hour looking for Koerner’s Library and repeatedly ended up at Irving Learning Center, where we eventually decided to have a quick lunch. As it later turned out, the library we were searching for was exactly in front of where we were sitting, which was just typical. All the hassle had been worth it, however, for the visit at the library was very fruitful and each of us found something of interest. Afterwards, we walked a bit more around the campus and found a spot with an amazing view of the ocean and the surrounding mountains. If only Polish universities had such beautiful locations!

Exams Seem So Much Easier If You Can Come Here to Study for Them...

Canada Study Trip Day One

On the 3^rd of March three students from our Students Circle left on a study trip to Canada. We will be staying five days in Vancouver, where we will participate in classes at the University of British Columbia, then we will go to Nanaimo to research Indigenous theatre at Vancouver Island University, and finally we will visit Alert Bay, a small Indigenous village just north of Vancouver Island.

Under the Canadian Flag at Granville Island, Vancouver, BC.

We started our 24 hour long, arduous journey from Katowice to Vancouver with driving to the airport in Warsaw, where we spent three hours waiting for the flight to Amsterdam. When we finally departed for Holland at 6 a.m., we were already dead tired, which didn’t bode very well for the rest of the day. After two hours in the air we arrived in Amsterdam, where we had to wait for another four hours. During that time we had to be the only three people in the entire airport who were reading critical essays over dutch breakfast. We also had our fun time browsing through the souvenir shops with gadgets featuring the Royal Dutch Airline’s mascot – the cutest bunny you have ever seen. When the time came to finally depart for Vancouver, we were barely alive. We spent the entire nine-hour flight alternately trying to sleep, watching films, eating chocolate ice cream and trying to learn Japanese on the plane’s entertainment system. When we finally arrived in Vancouver, we were greeted by our Polish Canadian acquaintances who kindly gave us a lift to Downtown Vancouver, where we checked in to our hostel (fun fact – they are filming Fringe just round the corner :D). We had just enough strength to walk around the local shops before returning home to collapse into our beds and not get up for twelve hours. 

At Granville Island, with Downtown Vancouver in the Background.

Today was our first conscious day in Vancouver and we spent most of it on Granville Island, a small island situated south of Downtown Vancouver, where we visited Performance Works to attend “Redefining Normal: An Intercultural Dialogue Series” organized by urban ink production society, which started with a poetry reading of Asian Canadian poets (among them the award-winning Evelyn Lau) on the topic of “Love, Relationships & Other Complications” as an introduction to “Confessions of the Other Woman", a play written by Valerie Sing Turner and directed by Diane Roberts and Gerry Trentham, exploring not only issues of love and adultery, but also race and ancestry. After the play we had the opportunity to interview the playwright and to talk to her about the role of her own personal experience in her creative process. 

Poetry Reading. Left to Right: Fiona Tinwei Lam, Chris (C.E) Gatchalian and Evelyn Lau.

The play itself was extremely engaging and quite racy at times, with the actors performing R-rated scenes in their underwear. What was most interesting, the actors played multiple characters, in extremely daring combinations: the actor Matt Ward, an attractive, very tall African Canadian man, took on the role of the protagonist’s little Chinese grandmother, and did it very well indeed. As Valerie Sing Turner told us, this discrepancy between the audience’s expectations and reality was an attempt to explore issues of multiculturalism in Canadian context.

Diane Roberts, Artistic Director of urban ink.

After our first day in Canada we can easily say that everyone here is really upbeat and eager to help. Asking for directions is a real pleasure - not only do you get the information you need, but it always comes with a smile and a couple of nice words. :) We can't wait to see more of Vancouver and its citizens tomorrow! 

A Bit of Indigenous Graffiti in the Underground Pedestrian Passing :).