That is what the city of Vancouver was described as. Last night was the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Vancouver is apparently one of the most populated places that far north. I have visited Vancouver once in the past, years back, when my family was visiting my dad's friend's family. I can't remember that much about it anymore. I guess I was too young back then to appreciate the beauty of Canada anyways. I'd like to visit Canada again, but I'm not sure when I'll get a good opportunity.

My memories of that time are really quite hazy because I thought I had visited a tower in Vancouver. However, that had happened in Seattle, not Vancouver. I remember that my family was going to eat lunch in the restaurant of the tower (Space Needle, I believe it was called) but there was too long of a waiting time so instead we went to a small shop where I bought a bagel. It was a good bagel, I recall.

Well, I should probably get back to the subject of the Olympics before I lose my thought process. I watched the people representing each country walk in. Everything was announced in French first, then English, which I was pleased by. There aren't a lot of countries interested in the Winter Olympics compared to the Summer Olympics, but I'm still excited by it.

I noticed that some countries seemed to have a lot of people, like Russia, Germany, the USA, Japan, Canada (but of course, they're the hosts!), and so on. On the other hand, some countries only had one or two athletes. And India, despite having such a huge population, still had very few athletes (though there was a decent crowd for China). Is India not that good at sports or something? D: I do hear that they play cricket, though. But that's not really a winter sport.

I'd really like to go the Olympics myself sometime. Particularly the Summer Olympics. It's true, you can easily watch from the comfort of your home, and the camera can get closer to the people than you would be able to from your seat in the actual stadiums, but it would be nice to really be there. To really see and hear everything for yourself and to be able to look wherever you want, not just what the camera shows you. And to really be able to wave back at the athletes as they come walking out.

You know, I've dreamed of myself doing athletic things like skating or running. But I wonder if I'd ever be able to achieve such a thing.

I once said that I was interested in becoming a janitor to my parents. I think being a janitor is a noble job. You keep schools and other public places clean, even though it's hard work that must constantly be done and not necessarily for a great amount of pay. In fact, I would rather be a janitor than a soldier. A soldier is a noble job too. But I think sometimes when you get out there, and kill innocent people, and see people's fear, and be horrified by death and starvation and disease, it wouldn't seem so spiffy. I would think, "Is it really worth it for the 'great good' to be doing this? People are really, really suffering."

My father told me that he didn't think I could be a janitor because I didn't have the stamina. And he even went so far as to say that my talents would be wasted if I became a janitor. That may be so, but it was discouraging to me. I really hate to be told what I can't do. People's expectations and words can really build fences around you, fences that are barbed and would injure you terribly to climb over. But I guess that's part of what makes it exciting to chase your dreams. It's showing people that you can do things no one thought you could ever do and overcoming challenges to become a better person that is so great, kind of like people who are addicted to getting adrenaline rushes... I want to do something amazing, to leave my mark on the world, or to at least feel a sense of self-accomplishment. I think just having a small taste of victory would be enough to make me feel like life was worth living. Perhaps being a janitor doesn't seem like the most stunning, life-changing job, but you never know. One of my school janitors was able to run a 4:25 mile, back in the day. I could write a book about my experiences. I could start changes in the school The possibilities are endless. How else can a mountain be made out of a molehill?

Labels: aiming high, bagel, canada, challenge, countries, dreams, glory, hard work, india, janitor, limits, memories, mountain, olympics, potential, seattle, soldiers, vancouver, winter, wish

I was trying to think of a title for today's blog post, and it just wasn't coming to mind. Sometimes I have multiple titles I think of to suit the subject matter I'm starting the post off with, and other times I can't think of anything worthwhile. This is one of those times. (It's ironic, because I already have the title thought out for my very last blog post. I hope I never have to use it, because I don't want this to come to end. It feels like my happiness would come to an end too)

What I mean about the title is related to anime. I was watching an anime called Someday's Dreamers. It's not that recent (I think it was a 2003 anime or something) and it's not really that exciting. But it is nice that there is a dolphin in it. After all, despite the scary dream about dolphins I had once, they are still my favorite animal.

Well, because Someday's Dreamers isn't that recent, probably no one is going to find the Japanese version and make English subtitles for it. I have only been able to find the English dubbed version so far. It's really annoying having to hear it in English because if the voice actors/actresses don't pronounce it well, you can't tell what they're saying. At least with the subtitles you could just read it straight off. But it was funny because one of the characters has a voice actress who speaks with a sort of British accent.

I was also watching an anime called Emma, not that long ago. It was more unique since it's about a time in England, more than a hundred years ago. The main character is a maid. Her name is, rather predictably, Emma. And then she meets a guy called William. Personally I don't like him all that much, but oh well. William is the son of a wealthy businessman, so he's part of the gentry. I don't want to spoil the main theme of the story, so that's as much as I'll say about that.

I found it amusing that one of the characters in Emma was a guy called Hakim from India. It's so weird to see an Indian prince in England speaking Japanese. And all the British people speak Japanese too. Well, the manga must be from Japan, and the anime too, so I suppose that's just the way it is.

On to other news, because I am not planning to squander my whole post talking about this. Recently, I had gone to the mall with my parents to a buffet for dinner on my mom's birthday. We spent a short amount of time browsing Macy's, since my mom was looking to buy a coat, preferably a waterproof one. I noticed a desk and some Christmassy themed things around it. There was also a mailbox of sorts (not one of those with flags that people have for their houses, I mean the sort of mailbox that is usually blue that you just dump your letters into if you don't want to go all the way to the post office), and paper and pencils to write a "letter to Santa". I was greatly offended because I AM Santa, and I have never received any of those letters, so Macy's was pretending to be me. So I wrote a letter that said so and put it in the mailbox. Hehehehe.

Sometimes I get the old nostalgia for Applied Arts again. Two of my friends are taking Advanced Applied Arts. They have been making some pretty nice stuff in cooking, like ice cream (though it melted over the course of the day, unfortunately). I miss Woodshop too. I was always allergic to the dust and kept sneezing during clean-up time, but still. After a while even the smell of glue and wood can grow on you. It's not like I don't like French...In fact, I guess I'm glad that my mom suggested I take it. (Sometimes it's okay to let other people decide things for you. Arranged marriages sometimes work out better than "love marriages", because they're more practical, rather than being based on a whim) But that doesn't mean I don't miss things sometimes.

Labels: anime, applied arts, arranged marriage, blog, christmas, dolphin, dubbed, emma, english, ice cream, india, japanese, letter, macy's, santa, someday's dreamers, subtitles, title, woodshop

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