It was a long travel day ... my flight left Taiwan on Sunday at midnight. I arrived in Vancouver at 830pm on Sunday ... funny that ... and the first thing I noticed was the sun ... it was still flying high in the sky. Taiwan doesn't participate in daylight savings so it's always dark by 7pm. In the winter, it can get dark as early as 5pm. I must admit, I do miss the long summer days.
I stated in my earlier post that I was looking forward to the 15+ hours I'd have in the air. I completely take that back. I wasn't able to get any sleep on the first leg of the flight ... the flight out of BC left at 11pm. As my timing was off and I was starving, I decided to eat a meal which means I wasn't able to get any sleep on the second leg either. I arrived in Toronto at 6am feeling very tired.
What can I say about Canada? The empty streets are shockingly eerie. Gas ... 108.9 ... what is that? I wonder how one can afford to drive. I don't know exactly what the gas prices are in Taiwan ... I've never really considered taking the time to look. It only costs about $4CAN to fill my scooter and I can run on that for 4 or 5 days, depending on my schedule.
Tonight a group of us went to Hess Village ... six of us to be exact. GST 6% ... PST 8% and Liquor Tax??? Our bill contained $23 in taxes, then a $15 tip on top of that ... ouch. Living in a country where taxes and tipping don't exist, it seems a bit outrageous.It's nice to be back in the world of western food. I've already had nachos and salsa and sour cream and lasagna and red onions and roasted peppers and baby carrots and dip and a Five Alive ... all things not easily attainable in Taiwan. I found myself drooling over the abundance of candy and chocolate bars at the airport tills ... Coffee Crisps, Wine Gums, O'Henry Bars, Licorice, Mars Bars ... mmmmm ... the list goes on.
Recently, I've been teaching my kids words like yard and fence and hedge and staircase and driveway and garage. My thought is to take some video of the streets here which can allow them to see the homes and properties that are kept by families so they can relate a bit more to how it works here. I'd like to show them the space that one family is allotted which normally goes unused. I know we have the space to spare and it can afford to go unused, but it also seems a bit unnecessary.
The roads ... it's an amazing concept that red lights really mean stop and wait ... yellow lights mean slowing down instead of speeding up ... that changing lanes means turning on the ticker and doing a shoulder check before crossing over. One can't compare it to the madness of Taiwan. As I said earlier, eerily quiet.
Although I know Taiwan is a foreign country ... to me, at this moment, Canada couldn't feel more foreign ... I find myself looking around in amazement at such a different world from what I know and live. I'm glad to be experiencing it all, of course ... but it certainly is being seen from different eyes.
One last thing ... a few months back I entered my favourite photo from Cambodia into a contest. I didn't hear anything back so I hadn't really thought anything of it. As it turns out, a letter was waiting upon my arrival stating that my photo has been chosen to be published in a book which my father has already purchased for me. I don't have the actual book in hand yet as it's still being published. It's all very exciting but more importantly, it's inspiring ... inspiring to want to continue to bigger and better things with some of the photos I have taken over the past while.
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