Tuesday, October 19, 2021

BUY AN UMBRELLA,
YOU CHEAP BITCH

I've had an enlightening, enjoyable and lovely weekend. Alessia and I took the ferry to Vancouver, and it was my first time going into the city proper, because prior to this, I'd only done a short transit at the Vancouver airport to fly into the island. Alessia's family lives in Vancouver so I was doing a sleepover at her family's house. Her mom picked us up in the drive over from the ferry terminal to their house, and I had a sort-of field trip on the way over. Alessia's brother had just returned from his birthday trip to Whistler with his girlfriend, and they're twenty years old, so her mom was telling us about the trip, and everything was just so chill. In Singapore, if you're from my community, when you go on a trip with your romantic partner, you'd have to lie to your parents about the people you're going with, pretend it's a group trip with your friends, etc. I learned about the issue with snow in Vancouver, and the fact that they recently had a salt shortage during a snow-in, and had to get salt delivered in trucks from other provinces. A salt shortage! To deal with snow!!!! What an interesting issue. 

We got to their house, and they had prepared the guest room for me. Alessia has a dog (fuck I'd asked for the breed, but now I've forgotten, I know there's a poodle part in the mix) called Korra, who is the gentlest furriest bear of a doggo, and she was so friendly, I loved giving her belly rubs. Alessia then drove me to Stanley Park, which was a lovely gradient of yellows and oranges and reds, and we found out that Stanley Park is bigger than Central Park in terms of land area! We then went to Granville Island, which is like a cross between Grand Central Market in LA and... I think, the Meatpacking District in New York? It has an entire market of fresh, delicious, diverse variations of cuisines, and also lots of cool, crafty, indie items on sale. I know when I was in New York, Adam took me to a sort-of reclaimed warehouse, that sold soy candles and eco-conscious items, I don't remember where it was at the moment, but for some reason the term Meatpacking District means something to me? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, Granville Island is currently my favorite place in Vancouver, and I definitely look forward to another full-day visit sometime. This time, I had a lox bagel sandwich, and the salmon tasted so fresh, I know now what they mean that seafood is super fresh in this city. We also bought fudge, and I had some of mine, and kept the rest to snack on during long and heavy classes. I freshened up at Alessia's home, then left for my date. My date(s?) and I have a running joke, I was supposed to be going on two different dates on the weekend, because I'd matched with them on the dating apps (hilariously enough, I matched them on different apps - one was on Bumble and the other on Hinge) and found myself getting along with them at the same time. 

However, one of them had a busy weekend, and so I met only one of them on Saturday. He brought a rose, because I apparently am now on The Bachelorette, and I will have to make my pick between the two of them. We had a lovely date, he brought me for bingsoo, as well as sushi. We got sushi at Davies St, which is the LGBT district of Vancouver, and the sushi was so fucking good! It wasn't even expensive, but it was delicious, so I suppose I will be eating much more sushi here than in Singapore. Even though the weather was hideously rainy (not something I enjoy, y'all know I love and thrive on the sun), I had a very enjoyable date. He also bought me "Canadian snacks" - most of which I'll probably snack on during my film studies classes, so basically all the people I'm hanging out with are being the best tour guides, and I’m so grateful.

Having mentioned one date, another curious thing is the other person I'd matched with, he and I have a mutual friend, a thing that has never happened in all my years and regions of being on dating apps. If you're observant, you'll know who our mutual friend is, because I only have one Singaporean friend who lives in Vancouver. She knows about us and our match, she had only nice things to say about him, and so, in my book, this increases his credibility by 319218. I'm looking forward to seeing him. On one of our video calls, he showed me his relatively new tattoos, and one of them was a character I recognised immediately, because I'd also been enamoured by her on the Netflix food documentary she was featured on. It struck me as wonderful that he'd chosen such a person for a tattoo. 

On my date on Saturday, I found out that he and I had a very enjoyable time, emotionally and physically, you may make of that what you will. It's always nice to know that someone you can connect with, also fits with you physically, so that's great. Now I will have to see the other person, and see if there is also a spark in real life. If there is, then I'm either fucked, or it's time to explore polyamory (I KID, I KID). I like both people, or what I know of them. They are both humorous, work with sound, are very aware of their own... personal stuff, as well as socially aware of all the shit that goes on in society, and I'm fond of them. I think they like and appreciate different things in media, though, so it is interesting to see how dating each of them will turn out. 

At the moment, I just learned about interactive movie screenings of The Room and Rocky Horror Picture Show, both of which the audience can participate in and do call backs to the dialogue/scenes (for example when Janet uses a newspaper to shelter herself from the rain, someone will yell "buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch"), or throw items like rice, or toast, or spoons, at the screen, at different points of the movie. This seems so fucking fun and I cannot wait to experience it for the first time in my life. Somebody needs to tell The Projector in Singapore to do this, I'm sure they know of such screenings happening, but I wonder why they don't conduct such viewings. 

I am.... happy. I am feeling a lot of love, and I hope you feel it too, in some way, shape or form. Thank you, Canadians, for making my experience of Canada feel so wholesome.