Erin is a Mother (Wedding Included!)

When August flew in and out of my life like a paper airplane, I should maybe have stopped to look around before diving headfirst into September. But, as many of you may be aware, I’ve been waiting for this September for the past 10 months and so when it came near, I grabbed it by the horns and wrestled it to the ground like that lady described in Talladega Nights. However, August was not without its own adventures…specifically those primarily occupied with my newest friend from Japan, Mayuko. You see, I was her host Mother for two and a half weeks and we hit it off quite well.

First off, she brought me gifts from an extremely well-known (and popular with the obaachans!) department store in Japan, Isetan.




Here is lovely Mayuko holding the treat bag.


Senbei and Anna Sui cloths. Very Japanese. I love it.

In the beginning of her stay, I didn’t know her well and wanted to impress. So I made salmon cakes. Yes, I cooked.


No big deal. She loved it.

Encountering strange people along the way who seemed to want to talk to Mayuko (in Japanese), we had some adventures with shopping, movies and food. One particular night I wanted to savor special culinary delights so I took her out to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for a bit of swank Canadian dining.




My potato lasagne. Not pictured: dessert buffet. Yummm.

Another Canadian tradition that I had the opportunity of exposing Mayuko to was that of a bridal shower and Canadian wedding. My oldest and dearest BC friend Jill decided to get married to the man of her dreams and thus, first came the bridal (lingerie) shower two days before the wedding.







After sufficiently stuffing ourselves and watching youtube videos about eyebrow threading, our evening of girl fun came to a close.

The wedding day started out quite hectic as everyone decided to hop into their cars and get out on the road to drive as slow as possible in front of me as I tried to make my way to Crescent beach in an timely manner. Just barely arriving before the wedding party, we soaked in the beautiful scenery before the ceremony commenced.












Jill was so beautiful.











After the wedding we relaxed on the shores, watching the sailboats and noshing on some interesting Korean sweets, red velvet cake and chocolate-covered strawberries.













After the party starting winding down, we still had some time to kill before the reception. We decided to head down to the pier in White Rock for some more sun and sea.





After soaking up the breeze, we headed back to Crescent Beach for the dinner reception in the hall on the beach.











Many congrats Lawrence and Jill! Mayuko and I had a wonderful time exploring that corner of the world but our adventures weren’t over yet.

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Wandering Mistral

Last weekend was a three-day, wonderful, work-free, blissful stretch. Being my first weekend without homework since I finished all my coursework and my exam is a month away, I decided I was going to make the most of the great weather and spend doing fun things with great people. I also bought a new camera for my trip to Japan and decided to stretch its legs and see how well it would perform under Erin-wandering-about conditions. If anyone is curious, it is a Nikon Coolpix S52c.

On Sunday, Marty and I decided that we were now enough like old people that we should go on a married-people date. So that’s what we did. We first headed out to Langley and tried the number one Greek restaurant in Langley, Kostas. We did have some delicious souvlaki but the restaurant was strange in that they had dancers on certain nights and some special called a 3-sum…not sure what that was about but considering the older ladies who worked there, I didn’t want to find out.

After dinner, we headed back to Abbotsford and strolled around Ellwood and Fishtrap Creek Parks and I broke in my new boots.













I then decided that I wanted dessert so we headed to the good ol’ Menno hang out, ABC Restaurant.



This was Marty’s hot fudge Mt. Baker. I had the coconut cream pie. Dericious.

The next day was my adventure into the big city of Vancouver. Jean was kind enough to let me ride with her into work and I was to use public transit (gasp!) to find Jen and Chris and we were going to explore Granville Island. (Yes! More Granville Island pictures! As if you hadn’t had enough…)


Ready to ride.





I arrived at Granville Island with my head intact (something about riding buses…yikes!) I ended up wandering a bit before Jen and Chris arrived so I decided to enjoy the sights on an early Monday morning.


I can’t believe I get to live near these wonderful places.


You can always tell who the tourists are by their giant backpacks.



















After the shimases arrived, we ate outside with the rest of the patrons and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We all ate food from different countries, Chris = Mexico/Italy, Jen = France, Erin = Japan (of course. Bad Erin for sticking the chopsticks upright. Very bad!)



Some wandering and shopping followed, with more pictures and eventually it was all followed-up with some gelato and fudge for the shimases.




Part of the masses soaking up the sun.

After we went our separate ways, I headed back downtown for some shopping. I headed up to Holt Renfrew and stared longingly at their MiuMiu collection and tried on some super-tight Rock & Republic jeans that were $400. I also went to the Prada store and sashayed in front of the mirror carrying one of the largest handbags in the shop. Tres fun. I decided then to head back toward Stanley Park and continue my people-watching along the seawall.



















The real purpose of coming in with Jean was that after work we were heading to our favorite restaurant (and one that I’ve mentioned several times previous), Benkei, for ramen.


The most delicious onigiri I have EVER had the pleasure of jamming down. Holy deliciousness.


YUM! YUM! YUM! Also the most delicious shoyu ramen I have ever tasted. All I need next time is more noodles.

This brought my long weekend to a close. But it was a good one. I’m not the one to spend the dog days of summer on a beach somewhere, so this was a near perfect way to start up August and start winding down everything else.

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