Saskatchewan

Ever since she was little, my sister Bree wanted to become a vet. She loved animals and when she finally got into University she started to do her pre-vet courses and worked part-time at a vet clinic. Unfortunately our University only had pre-vet courses and upon graduation she would have to travel elsewhere to complete her studies.

And that time was now as she recently got accepted into the University of Saskatchewan. She and my parents have been down there enough to find her an apartment, but as a familial gesture I thought it would be a good idea to go down there at least once to help her move in and see her off.

Who's a good big brother? I'm a good big brother.

While the apartment came partially furnished my parents were of the belief that my sister would need things like blankets, toilet paper, food, and other non-essential items to survive in her harsh new environment. We crammed the family van with as much stuff as possible and left early in the morning, it would be a long drive.

Did I mention I hate road trips? I get carsick easily, and as much as I try to sleep on these rides it's generally not very comfortable. The van was filled with boxes so I had even less leg room than normal. Also, my old nemesis of having a sore butt returned. But that's what happens when you lose 20 pounds from not working out as frequently.

Did I mention that there was nowhere in Bree's apartment complex for me to workout either? Good times.

Saskatchewan is... How do we put this... Boring. Dead. Empty. Saskatoon has less than 1/3rd the population of my hometown and I already find my city fairly devoid of life. And while I'm not satisfied with the campus of my University, a quick look at the University of Saskatchewan's campus and I felt more appreciative instantly.

At least Bree's apartment is nice enough. My parents actually straight up purchased the thing for her so that she only has to pay condo fees. Needless to say I'm a bit jealous. It has two bedrooms so she's hoping to find a roommate to rent out the spare bedroom to.

My parents have been making plenty of suggestions for me to consider working or studying at the UoS and give Bree some company. I respectfully declined.

I'm not that good of a big brother.

This also led to some interesting and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. My parents got one bed, Bree loves sofas so she instantly opted to sleep on it, and my brother Brian and I got the other bed. Which we slept in using separate sleeping bags.

I sleep quite poorly as it is. And perhaps I've been spoiled with my King sized water bed back at home. But those few nights we slept in Bree's apartment were terrible for me. It took me hours to fall asleep, I don't think the AC was working properly, and sharing a queen sized mattress with your brother leads to space issues.

One night I actually just stood up, moved to a chair in the kitchen and slept sitting up. Another night I moved my sleeping bag and just slept on the floor. But no matter what I did I kept waking up more groggy than usual.

But we're not going to see Bree for a while and it's unlikely that she'll be in touch often due to her studies. So it was nice spending time as a family even if there wasn't much to see, do, or eat in Saskatchewan. Its become a running joke in our family to suggest that we eat Japanese food down in Saskatoon (hint, don't do it).

We'll still see her on long weekends and holidays, and she'll only be there for 4 years. Trust me, she has no intentions of staying in Saskatchewan if she can help it. If Calgary or that other school in Ontario had contacted her back, she would have went there instead. The house does feel more quiet though. Even if I spent most of my time in my room it doesn't feel right coming upstairs and not seeing my sister in the kitchen on her laptop.

And now the pressure is on me to move out too. I mean come on, I'm almost 25 and my sister left the nest before I did? Disgraceful. However, that could quickly change. I could be (temporarily) living on my own in as soon as January. But my study plans are for another blog post.

Vegan Dinner Disaster

Every year around our birthdays my family takes the birthday person for dinner to a restaurant of their choice. Now you can be like me and always default to sushi, you could be like my brother and never make up his mind, or you could be like my sister, adventurous and constantly trying new places.

Bree generally had good tastes. So a few weeks ago when I found out she had picked a restaurant for her birthday dinner, I naturally starved myself in preparation for what is normally an excellent meal. She declined to inform me what the name of the restaurant was, but hey, surprises are usually good.

And then we drive up to a vegan restaurant.

I STARVED MYSELF FOR THIS?!

My brother and I are horrified. We are carnivores through and through, capable of eating red meat every day without complaint. My parents are laughing uncontrollably and my sister has this massive poop-eating grin on her face.

The inside of a restaurant was basically what I'd imagine a hippie's dream establishment to be. Yoga in the basement, wooden tables that look secondhand, a tea bar filled with the words "energy", "spiritual", and "activate" plastered everywhere. Brian and I sat poker faced as we withstand another barrage of laughter from our Mother.

Meanwhile, a McDonald's taunts us from across the street. I know of a good sushi bar 2 blocks away, and one of the best cafes I know is literally beside us. And here I am, trapped in this nightmare.

I'm trying my best to be polite. The food isn't bad, but I wouldn't come here on my own volition. Everything tastes of nature, the earth, tree bark, grass.

And I hate it.

Brian is poking at his mac and "cheese". Yes, the cheese is in quotations because it was presented that way on the menu. No it didn't not taste like cheese, at least, not any cheese I've eaten in Canada before. I'm choking down some sort of salad? I'm not quite sure what I ordered, I picked what seemed the most edible.

My Dad is happy though. He's able to sample everything that everyone else is eating. It's difficult to find places to eat at with my Dad due to his vegetarian tastes but he's having a good time.

Damian sits across the table, slowly losing his mind.

I was going to pick up a 20 piece McNugget pack from McDonald's after dinner. But something in that vegan dinner didn't agree with my stomach. So for the rest of the evening I suffered with extreme gas. My mother claims it was all psychological.

I personally blame the vegan food.

Never again.

Happy Birthday Bree!

It was my sister's birthday today so happy birthday to her! Even though you have a tendency to take forever to get my birthday gifts. No seriously, Bree's gift for my birthday last year just arrived. Either the postal office hates her or she doesn't consider me important enough to do these things properly.

MEANWHILE, I on the other hand have her gifts ready. Well one of them is going to be late but I can't help that. Plus, at least I have some of your gifts ready weeks if not months beforehand.

I know Bree will never read this blogpost (because virtually no one I know in real life knows that I even have a blog) but I hope that somehow she feels guilt tripped. Because I'm that awesome of a brother.

That's right, I'm awesome.

I think I only have one follower who is familiar with MS Paint Adventures. So I don't expect anyone else to recognize the intentionally horrible companion webcomic: Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. I don't know how much work was put into this monstrosity to have it look so bad.

In fact, it was so bad, they released a hardcover book. Which also had a lot of work put into it to make it intentionally bad. You can purchase on Topatoco if you so desire. Which is what I did for my sister.

They even made a commercial for it:

I have no idea how they got the scratch and sniff part to work. Also, it smells disgusting.

Another thing that my sister had a fascination for were these miniature food items. They're kind of a fad in Japan I think at the moment. What you do is you take the various powders, add water, and with a little work you too can create tiny versions of real food.

Some of them actually taste like the food they're supposed to replicate (e.g. curry and rice or egg omelets) but the sushi ones I got for my sister taste pretty gross. Maybe I'll order her some of the other ones in the future.

There's a guy on Youtube who records himself making these things. Below is one of the sushi kits I got for Bree:

Last but not least, remember the high quality resin ponies I got for Theresa way back when? This time I got something for Bree. There was a fan comic of her favorite pony so there, ordered her a  custom figurine of Woona.

It's scary how popular the creator has become. If you don't order within the first 30 seconds that commissions open up, you won't get a slot. And because it takes her months to finish each set of commissions you're going to have to wait for a while.

Which is also why this is the present that Bree is going to have to wait for. Too bad. At least I gave you part of your gift on time.

 For the record, my sister has terrible taste in ponies.

So happy birthday Bree. You're getting old now, just like me.

Memories of China: Dining Adventures with my Brother

In China I tended to prefer going off with my younger brother Brian. It's not that I have anything against my younger sister Bree, it's just that she tends to be a bit more quiet and doesn't share the same humor as Brian and I. It's not as fun doing things with her I find.

She's also not as adventurous. Brian and I have the mentality of doing things simply because we can do it, it be funny or it would make a good photo. Bree holds back, doesn't want to make a scene or even look foolish for a moment. I guess she has too much pride.

Whereas Brian and I don't really care if we have people staring at us while we fumble at a restaurant because our Mandarin sucks. We'll laugh it off whereas Bree will get all grumpy.

Something my sister needs to do.

This story takes place in a mall that had multiple restaurants on the top floor. Everyone else wanted to go eat Chinese food for dinner. I certainly didn't want to, we'd be getting tons of that on with the tour starting on the next day. Brian agreed. So, the two of us headed off on our own to find something more suitable to eat.

We were in the mood for Japanese and there so happened to be a rather nice looking Japanese restaurant. We found it odd that there were no prices on the menu outside but we thought nothing of it and got a table.

And then promptly left when we realized we didn't have enough money.

It was an all-you-can-eat restaurant and for about 230RMB (~$30 CAD) to get unlimited foie gras, sea urchin and other delicacies it was a pretty good deal. But we didn't want to spend that much money on one meal. We had only brought so much RMB with us and didn't want to go through the hassle of converting additional cash while in china.

The idea of so much foie gras makes me hungry just thinking about it...

So we agreed on going to a Korean BBQ restaurant. I had never gone to one before so I thought it be nice to try it for once. Plus, Brian's girlfriend was Korean, she must have taken him to one of these before. He'll know what to do.

Nope, it's his first time too. His girlfriend hates Korean BBQs. Makes her clothing smell like meat afterwards or something.

And so, for the second time that evening. He and I try and communicate that our Mandarin is pretty bad and that we need help trying to figure out what's going on and what to do.

Yep.

Eventually we order a ton of meat and end up getting one of the hostesses to cook everything for us. I remember both of us feeling really sweaty and we couldn't tell if it was due to the heat of the BBQ, if we were getting meat sweats from eating so much meat, or it could have been because we were embarrassed.

The food was good, I rather enjoyed my first Korean BBQ meal. I'd go again if possible because I actually know how to do things now. And maybe it was a good thing we got a staff member to cook the food for us, that way we wouldn't end up with charred meat or food poisoning.

Mmmm... Delicious meat...