As lovely as Vancouver is, with its mountainous backdrop and surrounding waters, I found it eerily quiet for a city. Granted, it is a small city, but it was QUIET and Chinatown was QUIET and EMPTY. I think of Chinatown as stinky, loud, and crowded. Not the case here. I was excited to have some of the Vancouver Chinese food, but I was left underwhelmed.

What I did think was nice was that most of the waterfront property was taken up by tall skyscraper apartment buildings. Not business buildings. Apparently, though, they're all owned by the same Hong Kong tycoon who designed them all to be the same all glass buildings.

One of the highlights from the trip was the conference-organized dinner party at the aquarium. It was such a good time, bumping into textbook authors, world-renowned professors and the like. But the BEST part was playing with the harbor seal. It was adorable. Again, I expect harbor seals to be stinky, loud, and amongst many other harbor seals. But this guy was by himself, and was as cute as a button and so playful. He would follow my hand around, flip, and twirl. Adorable.

Look what my boyfriend sent me to wish me good luck. :)