Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Greetings to you all on the first day of the Chinese New Year - The Year of the MONKEY!

And a special mention to those born in 1980 (as well as those born in 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968 - but I don't think I know many of you who are that old)...this is your year!!!

"Monkeys are fun and loving persons who are always cheerful and energetic. They are very clever. Give a monkey a boring book to read and he'll turn it into a Musical. Better yet, he'll (or she'll) invite everyone to see it free! That's how talented, creative and generous monkeys usually are."

Fellow celebrity monkeys include: Will Smith, Julius Caesar, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Taylor, de Vinci, Harry S. Truman, and Jennifer Aniston

I must say it's interesting seeing the large scale festivities that are going on in Vancouver (famous for it's multi-culturalness and "bananas" - if you don't know what this is, it's basically what I am!). They have a huge weekend long celebration in their Chinatown and even have an "Asian wedding convention" on in case you're an Asian planning a wedding soon (not me).

And as a present, those long-awaited photos from the year of the Ram:

September - my first month in Canada involving handcuffs, bunny rabbits and other fun stuff:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=vjrceuf.adosugon&x=1&y=4c33mm

October & Nov - Canadian festivities period incl Halloween, Thanksgiving, riding ambulances:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=vjrceuf.6eoi3he7&x=1&y=-obi5et

December - More fun and games for the last month of the year: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=vjrceuf.5cd7ichj&x=1&y=-7ek7hw

If you don't remember your Ofoto username and password, you can use mine

teresalee82@hotmail.com
password: aeroplane

So, here's to a prosperous year of monkeying around!!!

I'll be in touch again soon.

Love Teresa

Part 3: Luxury snowflakes and cakes

Part 3: Luxury snowflakes

Firstly, a special hello to my brother Adrian who has just managed to sign himself up to this list. Well done brother, you are cool.

So to continue this grand story...on Boxing day we headed back over to Victoria where I got to be the proud host showing off her new hometown. It was great exploring and finding lots of cool new cafes and restaurants (culinary world tour) for me to visit this semester. Also went to a jazz tribute concert to Chet Baker which was SUPERB and another resolution was added to my list – learn to play jazz on my keyboard.

We then headed up to Tofino (about 4 hours up island) – famous for its surf, long beaches (we went to a beach aptly named "Long Beach") and electrical storms. The drive up there made for THE most spectacular road trip. We went through such beautiful terrains – surrounded by ice-capped mountains, roads lined with snow-dusted perfect pine trees and glassy lakes. I would definitely say this part of Vancouver Island rivals NZ as one of the most beautiful places in the world. It really was
breathtaking (once again, see photos coming soon - it's a photographers paradise!). Tofino was a great retreat. We relaxed, breathed fresh frosty air, sat by the fire and read books, knitted, wrote letters, made pasta, went on walks, had coffee in quaint little cafes and chats with random people. Quite a pleasant corner of the globe – I highly recommend it to everyone!

And as I highly recommend Tofino for a relaxation retreat, I don't recommend staying in Victoria for a big New Years! Otherwise known as the home of the nearly-wed, nearly-dead and under fed – there wasn't much-a-happnin in this quiet city in terms of large-scale public celebration. We had a nice gourmet home-cooked meal at home accompanied by a NZ bottle of wine that my parents had brought over and went downtown to a nice restaurant/bar. We ran to the waterfront to see the fireworks. But
alas, there were no fireworks...or any kind of excitement of any other type - we thought maybe our watches were wrong! So anyway, we welcomed in 2004 with looks of bemusement and confusion, and proceeded home for hot cocoa, a "reading hour" and some quiet reflection by candlelight.

We headed back across to mainland again (and were pleasantly surpised to find a foot of snow had been dumped all over Vancouver) to prepare for the celebration of my NZ birthday – a day skiing on Mt Baker down in the States. Highlights were crossing the hostile US/Canada border (fortunately they didn't yell "WHAT'S YOUR CITIZENSHIP?!", but they did have a nice big picture of George Bush which was equally as scary), going to a typical US supermarket where you could only find extra-large-king-jumbo-sized chocolate bars, watching new-on-skis-Jenny zoom past me as I turned to see how she was doing (she is now embarrassingly better than me), having perfect snowflakes fall on my jacket and realising they really are as they are drawn - so intricate and delicate!, and lastly being led through powdery snow and stupidly deciding to slow down which led to my sinking up to my waist. 20 minutes later, after retrieving my lost skiis (and my legs) from under the snow and feeling like I was about to die from exhaustion, I found I had to climb up - with skis on -
an almost vertical ramp to the chairlift = kill Tee dead. Might I also quietly mention that the chairlifts didn't have those pull-down safety bars, making for very scary rides precariously perched on the edge of the seat (clever me had my backpack on)...ehrm and I only managed to "slightly" fall off once (SHH! don't tell anyone!). So it was a wonderful day despite waking up the next day with previously unknown muscles aching.

And the next day was my Canadian bday! It was a fab day though, and a brilliant sun shiny day. I woke up to find a whole bunch of carefully and surreptitiously bought prezzies from my Ryan family siblings and a cinnamon roll bun bday cake with candles – the first of 4 lots of candles on 4 different cakes I’d get to blow out that day! Had a scrummy HUGE brunch at Sophies Cosmic Café, a very eclectic place often frequented by Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn amongst many other stars (like me haw haw) and then did a whirlwind tour of more amazing places in Vancouver. Granville Island treated me to another bday cake and rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" sung in a very crowded cafe by a family of 6 that I’d just met, then to see my people in Chinatown, Gastown (where the main St closed off due to a fatal shooting earlier that morning – eeks), Stanley Park (truly beautiful), Caffe Artigianno – home of the best latte in town, then rushed off to the ferry home. I managed to finish reading "Brave New World" during the trip (excellent) and felt much the wiser for my 22 years. I arrived in Victoria to see more white, which was a shock and more of a shock to arrive home and find my roomates (flatmates) had decorated our apartment with streamers, banners and make me sushi, 2 more bday cakes with sparkler candles and heaps of more cool prezzies. I felt so loved! It really is touching to have such
awesome caring friends as roomates – I’m such a lucky girl! [and yes I made 4 sets of different wishes! YEAH!]

So that wraps up the fantastic holiday I had with the Ryan clan - good food, good company, lots of laughs and lots of beautiful scenery! I could have gone on forever, but my photos will explain a lot more. I've got about 300 of them just from the last week and it's taking awhile uploading them and sorting them out all good and proper!

I'll be writing again soon.

Thinking of you all from this winterywonderland. Please email me back at eelaseret@yahoo.co.nz to let me know how you're doing!

Love Teresa

Part 2 - Xmas: Finnish Swedes, walking down the aisle & 2 kilos of meat

I hope you are enjoying the backwardsness of my emails. Much like the flurry of snow we’re getting here, you’re going to be getting a flurry of emails from me!

One of my New Years resolutions is to write emails more promptly and in chronological order. I'm not doing very well so far.

Anyway, the last 2 weeks were yet again a completely and utterly jam-packed with action...would you expect any less from Jenny & Tee - they who attempted to see half the world in less than a month ;)

So how was the Canadian Xmas and NYs holiday? I spent the lead up to Xmas in Vancouver, a city I've completely fallen in love with (more on this later). Xmas eve was spent at Jono's landlords' upstairs (he lives in a gourmet basement suite). We walked straight into a setting right out of a "Home and Garden" magazine and had a delightful Finnish meal eaten off fine silver dinnerware.

Highlights of the night were...
- Eating Finnish Xmas delicacies: pickled herring, mashed swedes and other root vegetables (apparently it gets cold in Finland during winter and there isn't much food to cook with) – despite how it sounds it was very delish!
- Talking to old Finnish people: I only had to explain to Finnish grandma about 10 (dozen) times that I was from NZ and was studying in Canada for a year, Finnish grandad also told us interesting stories including about how in the old days when you liked a young lass you had to ask her father for permission to take her on a date...and the date would be at her house (I'm glad it's not like that now!)
- Being asked what the Japanese community in NZ was like. I had to avoid looking at Jenny or Jono for fear of bursting into laughter. I think I replied something like "well there are a lot of Asians in NZ nowadays...err mmmm..."
- Watching 7 year old Gabriel delight himself with the results of the consumer binge high season. I have never in my life seen a child get soooo many presents, it was unbelieveable! I've learnt it's not unusual for 7 year olds to get excited about computer software and that Ninja turtles are making a major comeback. Cowabunga dude! I made a mental note that all my children are ever getting for xmas are wooden blocks and lego.

After the Finnish dinner we drove to a lovely nearby church for a Christmas service. My first one ever. It was a very enjoyable experience, reminded me of what the season actually meant to me, got to sing (very badly) to nice carols and walked down the aisle with Jono (for communion, hehe).

We returned home after midnight and after many protests that in the Lee family we are allowed to open Xmas presents as soon as it turns midnight, I reluctantly conceded that as long as I was part of the Ryan clan, I'd sleep first and open presents the next morning (boo). It was worth the wait. We had a gourmet pancake breakfast (thanks to freestylin' cook Jono) and had fun opening our presents that were lying under our homemade Christmas tree (see photos). I now have some awesome reading
material - Culture Jam (by Adbusters founder) and How to be Canadian (I'll be sure to share some excerpts with you in following emails!). I particularly enjoyed watching Jenny open my present. I didn’t quite finish making it – a scarf - so wrapped up the lot of it, including knitting needles, and spent the rest of the holidays finishing it off. Aren’t I great!

The rest of the day was spent making a pavlova (thanks to mum's special recipe) and a spanikopita (for those less culinary-inclined, a greek spinach and cheese pie). Sounds easy enough right? But no - the previous day we’d been on a daytrip up to Whistler (famous ski village) and arrived home at 6:05pm to be told that all supermarkets in Vancouver shut at 6pm...oh no! Thankfully enough to the ever open Asian produce store across the road supplied us with some ingredients to improvise us with. Who needs filo pastry anyway! The potluck dinner with some of Jono's classmates was great fun – we were told we had a kilo of meat to each eat – and since Jenny is a vego I got to have her share. We also got to eat pumpkin which was exciting. Canadians only use pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns.

Enough reading for now. So that was Christmas Canadian style.

Part 3: The aftermath - what happens after you eat 2 kilos of meat (and pumpkin, and pavlova, and mince pies, and fruit cake, and chocolate cake, and....)

more more more 2004

There are a few parts to this email and I'm trying to get something out before my next class starts in 20 minutes, so here is the first part...

PART 1: Will I thaw in 2004?

Yes it's flippin freezing here!!! I seem to have a habit of hitting freak extreme temperatures. First it was the European heatwave and now it's been snowing in Victoria (the most western and warmest part of Canada). Apparently they only get snow at ground level every 5 years or so. It is -10 degrees (not counting the howling windchill factor) and tomorrow a snow storm is arriving!!! Much excitement!

It really is amazing how much more beautiful everything is when it's covered in white. It's such a novelty to be walking around in snow, but I've been told that my wide-eyed enthusiasm will soon fade as limbs start freezing off and I slip over and crack my skull on ice.

So here I am back at law school in the UVic computer labs clad in thermal pants under my jeans, thermal socks, a polyprop top, long sleeve top, woollen jersey [which they call "sweaters" here - so wrong], huge english duffel coat, toque [Canadian for woollen hat] and gloves. mmm toasty warm. This term I'm planning on taking 3 courses, most chosen on criteria that results in a minimal timetable and minimal work load - oh and may be interest and usefulness too.

- Conflicts law
I feel I don't have enough conflict in my life so was endeavouring to rectify this...but the course is actually about private international law, oh well. My lecturer is a kiwi and was surprised how good it was to have a familiar style of teaching i.e. boring droning voice talking for an hour and a half out of a textbook - how refreshing!

- Human Rights and Global Justice
I'm going to try and learn to heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race....This is my Monday 6-9pm class (boo) and apparently only 6 people got into this course. I have just found out it is also being conjointly run as a masters philosophy course. Am I scared? Yes.

- International Topics
What topics? I'll be finding out on Friday. It's kinda nice to be enrolled in a "mystery" paper. Although on the other hand I'm still deciding if I want Friday off for a long weekend so may drop it.

- Race, Ethnicity, Culture and Law
Sounds good eh?

So that's the low-down on the term for now. I'm also thinking of taking up indoor soccer and joining the photography club.

I must run and get to class, but the next email will be out tonight: my FANTASTIC winter holiday bonanza.

ka kite ano

xo ice tee