The things you probably are wondering about and the great white north

I took that test. Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts. It went okay. Not great, but not terrible. The guy proctoring my test told me that he heard that I needed a 78-80% to pass. I think that if Jesus wants me to pass, then that’s what I got. We’ll see in two to four weeks.

After the deathmarch of not-so-breakish break that was the lead-up to the test itself my buddy Andrew and I went to Canada for a few days. We visited great people like JJ Kissinger, my friend Bethany Meckelberg, and her roommates. We saw Whiterock, Langley, and Vancouver BC. A few things that I noticed:

1) Canada has interesting issues with signage. They have over-the-top signage for stores and such. If you’re looking for something, you will not miss it. If you do, you are an idiot or you are visually impaired…Or you might be lost and confused as to what a “winners” store means. You will find BC in general. It’s marked by the “Best Place on Earth” sign. Really. Canada also provides you with useful signs if you are making a right turn. At one intersection we passed 4-6 right hand turn signs, each about 15 feet apart. Just in case you missed one or five of them.

On the other hand Canada definitely does a mediocre job of posting important signs that tell you where you are going/where you are. Driving through downtown Vancouver, I got lost for 5 minute stretches without reassuring signs telling me I was going the right way. If not for the map and my faithful navigator Andrew, I would have been lost in China town and died. Periodically, right after I would lose all hope a sign would appear telling me that I was in fact going towards highway 1-mapleleaf (as opposed to highway 1A).

There happen to be several 88 Streets in Langley. East, West, and a street that you think is 88th…

2) Canada has cheap sushi. Bless them.

3) The University of British Columbia can be qualified as its own city. It has a hospital, lots of food, Canadians, and other things that cities have. It also has a fortress of learning. It’s this building that resembles a fortress, but on the inside it is 3 levels of people studying for classes as though the world is ending or not depending on the amount of studying that happens. There are strange levels of silence. There’s the “why are you walking with shoes in a somewhat normal volume?” level, there’s the “Everyone be real quiet, but whispering is okay.” level, and there’s the “I’m in the corner, no one cares, so I will be a quiet chatty Kathy” level. Fascinating place. Needless to say, Andrew and I stumbled into the first one right off the bat as we discovered what the building was about. In the midst of ugly looks we realized the need for silence before Canadian students broke the silence to tell us to shut up in an ironic fashion.

D) Langley is really close to mountains. You get there and BOOM! There’s a mountain in your face. You can see the pointy top. You feel like you can touch the summit. As a result of the mountain, it’s balls cold too. Langley also has a Tim Horton’s doughnuts that nearly seals its claim on being a Canadians only establishment by not accepting Visa. Only mastercard. Bah.

E) Canadian college students make wonderful hosts and are very kind.

F) Whiterock makes you sick in the winter if you don’t have a jacket when you’re out on the pier.

That’s it for lettered observations. I also went to Regent College (the seminary on the UBC campus) It’s a building that looks nice and is small. I think lots of good learning happens there though.

My break officially ends tomorrow with class. Know that being at home was good, but I did feel a bit of displacement for some reason. It might have been the unnecessary amount of sleep I got. I slept a lot.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• A quiet fury in my belly tells me I’m hungry
• The internet works faster this time…lovely.
• Funny people
• Another Great Sunday