Hello Canada

Bright sunny skies all around, thick accents, and all around beautiful scenery. For those who do not know what I am taking about, I am talking about Vancouver, BC.

 It had been a while since I did some traveling. Luckily my parents and sister chose the right time to go to Canada, which was during Spring Break of last year.

During this traveling time, my family and I went to go scope out the Canadian life. It’s a little crazy to say that Canada reminded me a lot of San Francisco. There were tall buildings all around, there were places where people can go sit and relax like a park, and there were a lot of great food places.

During the time that my family and I were in Canada we just did the things that we normally do when we get the opportunity to travel. We would get up early to go to our destination, then from the time we arrive we look for a place on where we are going to stay, and then finally we grab something to eat and go adventure out.

A lot of the planning of this trip was planned by my older sister. If it weren’t for her researching on what there is to do in Canada, my family and I would’ve been lost.

I would say my favorite part about being able to go to Canada is getting a different experience cultural wise. The food, the fashion, and the people were great.

Although being able to experience something different and enjoying the time being in Canada, I believe that the stereotype of Canadians hating Americans can be true.

Why do I say this? Well let’s just say that it was really hard one night with my family trying to find our rental van. Turns out, it was towed late at night while we were going to dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant. Why was it towed? Well we didn’t realize that the van was parked close to a fire hydrant.

It was a mess trying to find where the van was towed to. My family and I kept walking into the same coffee shop trying to get a phone number to the towing company.

When we finally found out as to where the van was towed to, we had to take a $20 cab ride to the towing place which was in the middle of nowhere. When we got there, my dad was pretty much arguing with the woman as to why it was towed but sadly the woman couldn’t say much about it.

The last few days that were spent in Canada, we went to a few famous parks (which I cannot remember) and we went hiking around them. The weather was a bit cold but it was also sunny, so at least we weren’t really cold. In Canada, once the afternoon rolls around with sunshine it becomes warm and nice.

And you can’t forget about souvenir shops. Every time I go to a place, I always have to get some sort of item to remind me of my time being there. I ended up buying a nice bag that says “Canada” everywhere and I also bought some shot glasses.

Even though it was a rocky experience in Canada with being overwhelmed with the culture life and trying to navigate, I would say that the experience was a great one. As I mentioned earlier, since I do not get to do a lot of traveling, I am glad that I got to spend my spring break in Canada with my family.

Eat some Pho

As the weather gets colder outside, it is the perfect weather to go grab some Pho. Ordering some flank soup from Saigon Bay on campus and sharing the experience with three others seems like the perfect way to end my school day.

I always remembered seeing Saigon Bay on campus since I started school at Sacramento State. I was sort of unsure of how the food would be since it is an express on campus restaurant.

I remember it was it was 4pm on a school day. I had just got out of class and was hungry for some Pho. Since the weather was a bit chilly out, there was nothing more satisfying than a warm feeling of soup.

It was Calvin, Cole, Calvin’s friend, and I going into the restaurant on campus. The people in the front of the register were friendly and the environment was quiet and not too crowded.

What I had ordered from the restaurant was a bowl of flank soup and an Arizona Iced Tea to go along with it. Because when you’re ordering soup and if you like your soup with full of flavor and spice, you’re bound to get thirsty.

I was very surprised on how fast the customer service that Saigon Bay on campus had to offer. I remember the other Saigon restaurant off campus takes a little bit of time only because it is an actual restaurant. But if you’re in a hurry and do not have a lot of time to spare on your hands, go to Saigon Bay on campus.

The restaurant was well kept up with and was very clean. A clean restaurant always makes for a better experience, at least in my opinion. The people working there behind the counter were well dressed and properly talked to customers when taking their orders. Although I have to say that the man working there was sort of hard to understand because of his thick and heavy Asian accent.

Even though it is an on campus restaurant, I think the people working there should be able to take an order to a table instead of calling an order out for a person to pick up. But I guess that is why they add the word express to Saigon Bay.

The soup that I had ordered was delicious. There is something about eating soup with meat and noodles that satisfies my hunger and to add hot sauce to it just makes the soup a million times better. The only thing that I wished that they had was bigger spoons to eat the soup with. You know what I’m talking about, the big “Chinese spoons” or something like that.

Not only do I wish that they had the big spoons to eat the soup with, but at every Pho restaurant, I am used to getting the toppings that come with the soup. Asian basil, jalapenos, and bean sprouts add to the soup to make it better. Although they did have the jalapenos, but I felt like the other stuff would’ve made my soup experience more exciting.

You may think that $6 or $7 for soup is a bit pricey, but if you love Pho as much as I do it is worth it. And by going with friends, it just made my Pho experience a positive one.

And there really was not a process in getting the check from Saigon Bay on campus because you simply pay for your food at the register in the beginning of ordering your food.

I would say my experience at this place was a great one. Who would pass up an opportunity to be able to eat great food and to hangout with friends? Not me of course, and being able to write about my experience is something that I will never forget.

Jersey Shore time

Take five pre Madonna’s, a lot of alcohol consumption, and excessive tanning and what do you get? You get the hit reality television show Jersey Shore.

I’m sure we as a society are all familiar with Jersey Shore. It’s a television show that is about a group of people living their everyday lives in unnatural social situations where their responsibilities are tanning and laundry. Your only real form of responsibility is some sort of job at a t-shirt store.

The one thing that only made me want to watch this show for a first time was the fact that it is a train wreck among the people that are on the television show. I mean who doesn’t want to watch people make fools of themselves on national television. I guess that’s why it’s popular because it is a reality show that is cheap to make and people are more likely to watch it because it’s not that old of a show.

After watching this television reality show, lets just say that it is something that I probably wouldn’t watch ever again for several reasons. One, I don’t really see what the rage is going on that television show. I have a friend Katelyn who watches Jersey Shore every night and is always talking about how good the show is, but my true opinion I think it’s a waste of time because it’s like every season of the real world.

Why do I say this? Because someone gets drunk, someone fights, someone has sex, and someone gets kicked out of the house before the season ends. Not only that but sometimes someone does get arrested.

It seems as if this television show gets advertised more before it started than when it actually went on the air. This television show wouldn’t necessarily fit what I would watch, but it is definitely something that I would watch on a bad day for a good laugh.

This show would be a match with MTV’s reality show True Life because that show is basically about a person having a real life story to share. True Life can also teach people as a society many lessons that people have hardships and struggles and no one is perfect on camera. For the comparison side to side with Jersey Shore, this is assuming their cast does not appear to be what you would call “fake.”

I guess you could say the only other reason as to why I decided to do a television review of Jersey Shore is because it is a show that is considered to be popular and that I wanted to see what the rage was about.

Call me old fashioned but I do like watching reality television but I only watch family related reality television shows. Those are the types of shows that teach me how to have good morals and to be a good person.

Corny I know that sounds but it seems as if reality shows like Jersey Shore follow one pattern and that is getting the truth of people on camera no matter how embarrassing it may be.

MTV’s reality shows True Life and Jersey Shore share similar qualities but the concepts seem to be rather different. In MTV’s true Life, camera men are following two and sometimes three people about their own life struggles and only get one episode. But in Jersey Shore, the camera man is following eight people for a summer and they get a season.

Sorry Jersey Shore, but if you were a little bit more interesting and actually had an interesting storyline other than drama among people I would probably watch it more. I am more into reality shows that are relatable to those who feel like are outcasts like the other MTV Show My Life As Liz. I am more into sarcastic humor than funny stupid drama humor.