The bear didn´t eat me

After the 10 days-trip in the Canadiam Rockies I only can say one thing: Awesome!!!!!!
The environment is pretty beautiful: lakes, mountains, waterfalls, glaciars....



And you know what? I didn´t meet any Spanish. Only people from Australia, UK, Holland, Germany, Switerzland and even from Croatia. In conclusion, when it comes to travel to USA or Canada people from the south of Europe seems to be frightened... maybe because of our fucking English -the English of people from the north of Europe is so brillant that we look idiots by comparision-. By the way, Australian accent is nearly uncomprensible. I needed almost 3 days to get used to it -they didn´t pronounce the "r" sound so a "Beer" becomes a "Bee" and the "a sound" is like de Spanish one so the say "Spain" or "again" instead of "Spein" or "agein"-

And yes.. We saw a bear with 2 cubs. The funny thing is that if you see a car parked besides the road, it means there is an wild animal near. In fact, this bear-view caused a trafic jam because all the people wanted to shoot pictures from their cars. Can you see the cub?

Let´s rock

Tomorrow I´m going 10 days to the Rockies... Yahooooooooo!!!!
So, I guess I won´t be able to blogger anything until my return to Vancouver...

Yes, I know... Sometimes it seems the only goal of this kind of post is to grow in you some kind of envy. And you know what? You are rignt! ;-))))))

By the way, If you don´t have any notice about me in the next 15 days, call up the Spanish Embassy in Canada. I could have been wolfed down by a cute-big beer..... ( I´m not kidding)

Let´s rock!!!!

Even kids need to be dried and....

... and Totems need to be repaired

Find the rule!

Imagine you work for the Post Office Services. How do you know where to leave the envelope? Yes, you are right. Number 3, even number 1, are clear.. But, What about the rest of them?


By the way, these boxes belong to the float houses in Granville Island, which was an industrial park that was transformed into a Public Market. This is the awesome view from the harbor -the view is behind the Swiss girl, salidos!!!-

A Canadian Bear

Trust him!!! Obviously, it cann´t be a bear ( Bears haven´t got horns, idiota!)
It´s so cute!!! Cuchi, cuchi, cuchi....

And a Canadian Beer

For a beer is imposible to be more "Proud of being Canadian"

Something is wrong?

For sure you know Warren Buffet has decided to give most of his money away to the foundation created by the only man richer than himself. All this money will help make the world a better place and, no doubts, this is a loadable task. The likes of "Mr. you are fired" should take note...

But the thing is: In the Toronto Public Library -see photo- there are some computers that have been donated by Gate´s foundation. In the other hand, one of the tasks of this foundation is to improve the resources of Public Schools in the pourests regions of USA.

And I wonder, shouldn´t this task be government´s responsibility?

What the hell is that?

Neither football, nor politics.. but something has lighted a fire under me. In fact, for sure in this world it is impossible to fit in more idiots (spanglish?)

I am really upset. Have you seen the ideas that PP are trying to trasmit to the Spanish society? It´s not uncunny you can see behind all this campaing: ETA-not alQaeda- put the train bombings in Madrid. Because of this, PSOE won the elecctions and as logical consequence PSOE is going to give up the terrorists.

Sorry, I must be a fool because either something is wrong or I don´t catch the point.

And the last straw has been the famous new "adverstisment" where you can see a rose with a snake. How can PPadicts say that PSOE and ETA are the same thing? The failure to measure this kind of "pitch" is devasting for the society. To be honest, I´m absoluted convinced PP doesn´t give a shit about any task in order to try to win the next elecctions. Maybe they think "If PSOE overhelms ETA, they will win the next elecctions so.."

And what can I say about the talks?
I would say that thanks to the police&political&people presure ETA is close to defeat. And maybe this will make your teeth grind but the point is, even to formalice that defeat, PEACE TALKS are neccesary. Like it or not, TALKS are always neccesary after a war. And this task is gonna be long and hard and PSOE can´t walk alone. I´m not saying that PP has to pat PSOE on the head, but this negotiation will last years and the blind refusal to back the talks will turn out to be big problem when PP win the elecctions -I said "when" and not "if PP win" because I assume PP will win next elecctions because anda que el PSOE lo está haciendo bonito-.

And it´s OK. I´m braced for the likes of PPaddicts that cling against the peace talks with ETA and who believe not only I wrong, but I have betrayed dead´s memories. But you know what? Even PP negotiated with ETA without a ceasefire and AVT didn´t complaint about it. Have that in mind before say anything.

29th Vancouver Folk Music Festival

This weekend was the 29th Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It was settled in Kitsilano beach and, as usual, the view and the enviorement were awesome.

7 scenarios, more than 40 folk groups, an incredible organization, and more than 900 volunteers. Can you belive it? There were different committees with different responsabilities: Security, enviorement, kitchen, administration... In fact, this festival only goes on thanks the volunteers.

I was enrolled in the "Perfomer Services Tent" And to be honest, until I got there I didn´t find out what the dam it was about. My goal was to deal with perfomer´s problems like "I need a new badge" and that kind of things. By the way... Badge? What the hell is a badge? Now for sure I know it ;-)

One thing. In the end Corquieu didn´t come (cajondiez) As far as I know, there were some problems with the flight. It is what it is... But even without Corquieu, it was worth for me to be there -at least I didn´t lay out a $120 ticket-

It must be true....

... because I read it on the Internet

Subject: THIS IS NOT JUNK LETTER. BILL GATES IS SHARING HIS FORTUNE
Dear Friends, Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune.
If you ignore this you will repent later.
Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.
When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user)for a two week time period.
For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00.

Si no reenbías esta información a todos tu hamigos te kedarás filivustero y sufriras migrañas el resto de tu bida. Hademás se te caherá la poya, te kedarás calbo, tu móbil dejará de funcioná, tu labadora quemará tu ropa, tu microondas perderá hagua y te bolberas maj feo que el jorovao de notredan. Ha mi primo segundo por parte de mi tío havuelo le pasó... Tan cierto como ke soy profesor de literraturra ispana. Palavra de onó.

Grouse Mountain

Just 20 minutes from downtown you can find one of the Vancouver´s attraction: Grouse Mountain. To get the peak, you can eithar take the Skyride or climb the mountain. Of couse, I climbed the mountain: 1 hour and a half.
Honestly, it was harder than I expected . I was kind of beat so I took the Skyride to go down.

The funny thing was that there were warnings about a bear that was sawn a couple days ago. But there were no "instructions" about how to deal with this kind of "challenge". In sum, in this rim of nature you can ended your days in the stomach of a awesome- cute-bear.

PD: One day in Toronto I asked for a Canadian beer, and the bartender answered: "I guess in British Columbia". With a spot of imagination you would see the reason ;-)

Are you on the mortgage?

Oh my god!!! Have you seen the soar of interest rate? It´s frightened.

It seems it´s gonna increase until 4-4.5%. It´s supoussed this rise is to keep the inflaction at bay, but if this is the case I´m afraid that lots of people will have to sell their houses because they will not be able to withstand such a interest rate. (And no, you can not blame on left-wing neither Zapatero)

And what it´s worst, like it or not the brick can loses its value. After a boom a plunge always follow. You can see precedents in the UK´s housing market.

The decline in borrowing costs over the past 8 years has encourage lots of families to buy unaffordable houses. An the point is that houses are more overvalued than they were at any other past time. Nowadays -if you are lucky and you can afford the monthly payment of your mortgage - you need a hyper-long term mortgage. In the old days our parents not only were able to buy a house in less than 10 years, but they were able to raise us as well.... and often only with our father´s income. So, either something is wrong or I´m not able to catch the point.

Maybe the petrols price could fall and the rise of interest rate could plunge too. Maybe we could win the lottery or even we could find a extremely-well-paid new job. The thing is that I´m afraid all these situations are againts all odds but, who knows what´s in the store for us?
;-)

Delusion of a big washing machine

Look, if you try to achieve "The American style of life" it´s suppoused that you have to pursuit happiness in the form of big cars, big houses, new technology items - by the way, do you realize how quick this kind of stuff loses its value?... it´s shocking!!!- , incredible ineficient washing-machines that waste 150 liters of water every time you use it...

But, to achieve all these goals, maybe you have to work around the clock. And the funny thing is that, the most you pursuit the "happiness" in this way, the more you sacrifice what is really important. We already know the dark side of relantless work is less spare time to be with your family, friends, your health... But sometimes we are not aware about it because we´ve just forgotten it.

Giving this situation, maybe the question is not longer only "Are you happy with your life?"; it´s also "Are you able to be happy without buying a big washing-machine or are you always looking if the grass is greener in the other side ?"

But the point is that "the Spanish style of work" is even worst that the American one -or at least "that the Canadian one"-. For example, in Canada almost all people leave their offices about 5:00 PM. Even there are shops that close the doors about 6:00 PM. Can you imagine?

Think again leaving your office about 5:00 pm. Can you imagine?

Sometimes it seems we are suppoused to stay in our office overworking - or maybe with nothing to do- because your boss is still there... And don´t dare leave the office until a prudential hour.. otherwise " What could your boss and co-workers think about you?" The problem is we often mix up "to work efficiently" with "hours".

Let´s be honest, IT SUCKS. And if this is your case, your job and your live turn out to be like an American Washing-Machine: extremely inefficient.

Sawns Falls Loop.

My second trail with Wanderung.
In this case, we hiked the "Sawn Falls Loop". It was about 20 km with a elevation gain of 1200m. Hiking time: about 8 hours.

The path is in an old forest where you can find some small and beautiful lakes like this one (Lindsay Lake).

After leaving this lake we encountered snow, but much of it had melted away in the hot of the last 2 weeks.

We ascended the Eagle Peak as well. From this peak you can see a really awesome view. The problem was that the day was so sunny that my shots seems to be blurred and burnt (cajonodemo!!)

PD: Yes, of course, we got lost (again). It´s to die for -it seems everytime I go outdoors, I get lost-.
PD2: And there was a little accident.. I was just cracking jokes and I fell into Lindsay Lake (12 feet deep). Fortunately, there are not photos about it ;-)

Proud of being Canadian

Saturday, Canadian Day

Once you are in Vancouver, you realize that Canadian are really "Proud of being Canadian". Maybe it´s because of the people who work hard to meet the standards to become a citizenship. Those people who make Canada a beautiful land of diversity by complementing this landscape with different cultures.By the way, some days ago I asked my teacher whether there was going to be an Army Parade. He answered "An Army Parade? Of course Not. They are in Afganistan" After this, he smiled and added "We are proud of being Canadian, but we are not like the Americans... Canada became as a nation peacefully, quite unlike USA. They became an indepedent country after an armed revolution"

My first hiking in Vancouver

The thing is that there are some "on line" Hiking Clubs. For example www.wanderung.ca
To make the story short, Wanderung is a mailing-list that allows its members to reach out for people to go hiking. On Wendsday I received a email from a canadian girl asking for people to go to Buntzen Lake Reservoir. I answered "ok, lets go". In the end, we were a group of 5 people and the point was that the girl who organized the hiking put his car at our disposal for free. The path, whose name is "Diez Vistas", was amazing: 15km, 4 hours. Yes, of course, we got lost. But only half an hour...
This is the view from the first "vista". From this point you can see Vancouver and Mount St Helens that is about 300 km right from here. Homework : "What is Mount St Helens?"

And the best thing is the path ends in the Buntzen Lake where, of course, we swam and sunbathed as well. By the way, I though I was out of shape, but no way! :-)

PD: OK, I´ll be honest. I confess yestarday I skipped my classes, but I don´t regret anything about it except the fact that I could have enrolled this club before. It was fun and only fun