Sunday, January 15th, 2005

My journey began this morning when I woke up at 4am. Emotions were both high and low as Mother and Candi drove me to the airport. After going through the metal detector two times and then getting completely searched, Air Canada Flight 549 left JFK in New York at 7:45am est. The plane was surprisingly not full and I had a whole aisle to myself. I arrived in Vancouver around 10:45am local time but had to wait for Chelsea in the airport. Two hours I waited and then she finally arrived, with a new friend Jada that she met on the plane from upstate New York. We all went to take the Airporter (shuttle) to our hotel and met another guy Steve from Indiana University.

Let’s just say that the ride to the hotel was not that great. The driver was an older woman who had an attitude towards everyone on the shuttle (looked like the Quinnipiac shuttle). We drove all around Vancouver in circles going to all the different hotel stops. The Empire Landmark Hotel is a beautiful hotel that rises 42 stories above the ground in the center of Vancouver overlooking the port. It is one of the tallest buildings and has great views from the rotating restaurant on the 42^nd floor.

Some things that I’ve noticed (randomly):

1. There are tons of college students around on the streets and almost all of them are going on this trip. It seems kind of weird because there are so many.

2. Vancouver has a very large Asian population. It was a very interesting thing. There are so many Chinese, Japanese, and Thai restaurants. I think I may of read somewhere that Vancouver has the 2^nd largest Asian population out of any city outside of Asia.

3. There are a lot of restaurants on the second floor above shops and other restaurants.

4. Vancouver seems very American with a little hint of Europe.

The four of us (Chelsea, Jada, Steve, and I) all ended our day by going to Red Robin’s (the very same chain that used to be in the US and closed down) for some drinks and some food. Before we retired for the night we went up to the restaurant on the top floor and looked at beautiful Vancouver all lit up.