real northwest

My parents drove down to visit for the weekend. We spent yesterday touring the Fremont neighbourhood of Seattle (the self-proclaimed "center of the universe") where we had a delicious meal at Jai Thai, visited the troll under the Aurora bridge, and checked out the statue of Lenin. It got damn cold out. After that we walked through Pike Place Market which is a huge maze, then I took them on a long tour of the UW campus. Luckily we were finished with the walk and safely inside Target by the time it started to rain. And rain it did. We headed home where I made a quick chicken, onion, napa cabbage and celery stirfry for dinner. I put on the Constant Gardener for them (which I've seen and loved) so I could get the rest of my grading done. Hooray for long movies. If I had Lord of the Rings at hand (they'd hate it) maybe I could've finished my paper too.

Today fog rolled in to join the rain and it really started to feel like the Pacific Northwest. All the sunshine the past month was a little disguise that Mother Nature put on to help me adjust to living here I think. And for that I thank her. Today we headed out to Big Lots for some guaranteed good bargains and then over to Nordstrom Rack for one more attempt to buy shoes in the tiny size that my mother wears. By comparison I have rather long feet for my height. My feet would've made me rather unpopular a few generations ago in China but here and now they keep me from falling over (sometimes). Parents made it back to Coquitlam in record time ~ 2.5 hours while my roomate and her boyfriend made the reverse trip in 4 hours thanks to a 1.5 hour wait southbound at the border while customs searched people's trunks.

Back to writing my paper. It's dark and wet out and I can hear the cars and buses sloshing through puddles on the pavement. Sounds just like Vancouver. Hopefully the weather helps me to stay indoors and focussed on school. If it begins to have adverse effects I will be making a little appointment with that light box at the counseling center for people suffering from seasonal affective disorder.