My first snow

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It is every Filipinos dream to play in the snow. I live in a place where the "coldest" it could get is 20C in January or February. Now is the time to live that dream so off to Mt. Seymour I went. The first ones I saw were by the side of the road. Not exactly pretty. They were the snow that were brushed to the side of the road and salted. I don't know what the salt is for but that is a lot of salt if they had to put salt in the snow every winter. What a waste! They also put sand or something. Maybe so the roads wont be slippery. I have a tendency not to believe when the people telling me are not professional tour guides. That's just me.

I was so ready to go skiing and snowboarding and whatever else people do in the snow. However upon arriving at the cabin I was told that they were closing! It was raining so they had to close. I thought rain was normal here? However I didn't let that ruin my day. It's my first time to see snow so I'm going to enjoy it no matter what! It was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. I was too excited to look at the temperature. I found skis at the back of one of the buildings. I put them on and had my picture taken. Found a snowmobile and posed on it. Those photos were posted on Facebook of course!

My friends seem very impressed with my picture with skis on! Haha! I posted it with the description "my new hobby". Anyone who knows how to ski will be able to tell immediately that I'm a poser. I was wearing basketball shoes and pants that are not appropriate for the snow. However Filipinos don't know that so it doesn't matter.

I'm gonna try that again when I go to Alberta. I'm just waiting for the water on the turquoise lake louise to melt so it would look like the picture that I saw before I go. They would always have snow in the mountain I guess.

I wasn't wearing waterproof pants and shoes so I went back inside the cabins after taking pictures. I forgot to do snow angel and make snow man and have snowball fight. Right, I don't have anyone to snowball fight with. I should test if it would be thrown back at me if I throw them at random people in Alberta. Oh and I also forgot to pee in the snow. I wanna know what it would look like.

Went to Burnaby mountain. It's a park with totem poles that were given by the Japanese government as a gift. I wonder if the cherry trees are also gifts from Japan like the ones in Washington DC. They said that place is lovely in the springtime. It had nice views of the harbor and the snowcapped mountains. Burnaby mountain has no snow. It's basically just a garden with totem poles on top of a mountain. Totem poles are the big wooden poles with carving that indians make. Oh right they call them first nations here. People in wheelchairs are called PWD (persons with disability) not disabled. All the buses here sort of bows down in the front part to help them get on and off the bus.

I noticed on the side of the road sometimes I'd see pictures and flowers. They said its like a memorial for the people who recently died in those spots due to car accidents. I saw that on the side of the road on my way to Barnet Marine Park. This park is supposed to be their beach. Lots of people go there in the summer. The water never gets warm even in the summer. Beaches are more like barbecue places or tanning salons here. Some do swim. I wouldn't. I was pretty though. Certainly not a beautiful white sand beach but pretty because it's different from what I'm used to. It was mostly pebbles rather than sand. There were lots of mussels on the rocks. Nobody seems to be gathering them. I don't know if Canadians don't eat mussels.

You can catch crabs in Barnet. The ones that people eat. Not me. I'm vegetarian. I did see some people fishing for crabs if you call that fishing. Is it harvesting? Anyway the Korean couple had three big catches. They have this metal thing that you put the bait into and then throw into the water and the crabs would attach themselves into that bait to get the chicken. I didn't know that crabs lived in the water. I always thought they just bury themselves in the sand. Maybe they have a different kind of crab here? I thought only lobsters lived in the water. That was certainly new to me. Female crabs and young crabs are thrown back into the water. There is a limit of two crabs per person that they can catch. I believe catching crabs is free. Great if you don't have a job. Just go there to get your crabs and mussels.

Sakiko, the Japanese girl I met on Mt. Burnaby taught me how to skip rocks on the water. I've never done this prior to coming to Canada. Apparently you have to find flat rocks to do it. I manage to make it skip twice. She can do four. I stopped trying because between the two of us I was the one who threw like a girl. Japanese people play softball. Filipinos don't.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

1st snow
How wonderful to be enjoying your fake snowy dreams. Looks like you are having a great time.

[Josevich]

first time
Yeah thats something I never thought Id ever see! This entry is way back from my second week in canada. I have since been to snowy places a few times more