This weekend was an adventure in Vancouver.
Friday afternoon started with an impromptu meeting of my friend Adam in Manning Park. I have recently taken it up on myself to compete with my own times for making it to and from Vancouver. This means, when I get in my car, I am immediately in 'racedriver' mode, which means my eyes are on the road and on the lookout for cops, not much else. So when I saw a cyclist in Manning, it took me a second or two to process that this individual might be my friend, and almost instantaneously, he was flagging me down to stop on the side of the road.
It turns out that Adam had been anticipating our crossing all afternoon and had been keeping his eye opene for any white car that came in his direction. You see the first thing Adam says to me after months of not seeing one another is 'Hey. Can you take some stuff for me?' I appears my dear friend realized in the few short days since he journey commenced that some of the items once thought to be essentials, would no longer be on that list. (This includes a VPL library book I was asked to return while in the city!)
The first destination for my weekend was Abbotsford. Abbotsford is 'The city in the country'. Basically, it is a somewhat rural suburb of Vancouver about 70km outside of the city limits. Many local farmers are based in Abbotsford, and Bonnie is currently working on a goat farm in the area. We also have a few good friends that live in Abbotsford - the city part - with whom we had arranged to have a Canada Day get together. The dinner was fabulous, the stories thrilling and the fireworks put on by the city to end the evening very reminiscent of my Canada Day experiences back in Montreal.
Saturday was quite the contrary - but in a good way!
Saturday I was celebrating my friend's impending 30th birthday. His family and a few friends spent the day fishing, crabbing, drinking and eating on a boat in English Bay. Well, everyone in Vancouver knows, if you get the rare opportunity to hangout on a boat in the city, you don't say no. I even brought a friend along to share the experience!
However, I must elaborate that my friend is a very proud Quebecois, as are his parents and most of his friends. For this reason, while the rest of Vancouver's residents were flying there Canadian flags with national pride, our boat was flying its Quebec flag with insurmountable pride.
I think the moment that best describes the depth of Quebecois pride felt on our boat this weekend is this: Toward the end of the evening, once we had caught and eaten our crab, fished and eaten our fish, drank as much alcohol as we wanted to consume and taken in as much sun as our skin would allow, the captains decided to dock the boat at Granville Island for the evening. By this time most were a little bit tipsy and generally in good spirits from spending a fabulous day on the water in good company. So as we cruise under the bridge to Granville Island, the boys put on their favourite music, which just happens to be politically charged Quebecois tunes. Belting these songs (in French) at the top of their lungs, with our Quebec flag flying proudly, and my friend's mother chanting 'Quebec! Quebec! Quebec!' we cruise by the crowds ashore as they stare intently at the ruckus eminating from our boat.
It was certainly an experience to be a part of such a commotion - I know this day will be stored in my memory for years to come.
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