I'll Be Home For Christmas, If Only In My Dreams

Read to Rascal Flatts - I'll Be Home For Christmas

Dear friends, that wonderful time of the year is here.  Reindeer and snowmen; fireplaces and turkey; secret santa and Christmas movies.  What a joyous time.

Alas, such Christmas spirit is a bit of an alien concept here.  Mind you, I plan on having a blast on Christmas Eve and Day with friends and family, but being in freaking-cold Beijing with dust and smog in lieu of snow really reminds me that I'm not at Home.  In my 38m² apartment I'm home.  But not Home.

So friends, while you're out celebrating (aka boozing it up) in Vancouver, please know that I'm thinking of each and everyone of you.  While I'm boozing it up of course.  :)

Christmas Eve will find me
where the love light gleams
I'll be Home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Merry Christmas everyone.

The end isn't near; it's here...

Read to Think of Me - Phantom of the Opera

This is it.  It's not big deal in the big scheme of things, I know, but right here, right now, leaving indefinitely seems like the end of an era.

In many ways, I guess it IS the end an era.  Although Vancity is the home that never changes, I've changed so much I can barely remember the old me.  That shy and unassertive boy who ate lunches alone in the library.  In those days I wondered what it'd be like to be...accepted.  Popular of course, but also well-liked and loved by friends and comrades.

Although I've been lucky enough to experience that ever since I've met each and every one of YOU (you know who you guys are), these last few weeks have been a display of love of epic proportions.  Thank you all for making my last days in Vancouver so memorable, filled with laugher, and loving.

To quote G. Randolf: Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.  i will never forget the good times, the jokes, the laughs, the tears (well, not my tears), the hugs, or those moments where you feel all is good in the world.

So dear friends, I end not with 'goodbye' but with 'see you next time'.  I hope I'll be able to keep up the blog and I'd love getting emails from you guys!  Think of me every now and then!  I'll definitely be thinking of you guys... 

With all the love in my heart,
Lloyd

For Queen and Division

Read to Green Day - Time of Your Life

Wow.  All I can say is thank you to everyone who showed up at the award ceremony on Tuesday night.  Simply seeing you guys reminds me how much I have SJA to thank for.  New friends and old, intra- and inter-divisional, old and young, you guys have made SJA the great and fun organization it is.

12 years and a shiny medal.  Countless training nights and duties.  Fantasic NCOLDP days both as a candidate and an instructor.  Competitions.  Watching drill team on Sunday mornings.  MFR with Boss and fellow 59ers (ladies' night it's celebration?).  Honolulu dinners and rants.  RITO!  Boot shining parties.  SJA Olympics (wink!).

Thanks to each and everyone of you who has made SJA what it is.

I'd like to say a special thank you to Mike Hewitt.  You can annoy the hell out of me like no one else, but you've always inspired me.  Plus I'm jealous that you're white.  XD  Seriously though, thanks for everything Hewitt.

Halcyon Days

TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) was amazing.  It's funny how much you can learn about English that you never really knew.  Grammar, for instance, is crazy.  Future perfect progressive?  Past perfect?  Sounds like weird sci fi movies.  Luckily, classmates were more than fantastic.  Pirate detectives?  SLCKLCKS?  Team racially oppressed?  Thanks for the good times!  TEECHA!!!

Happy official celebration birthday Carmen and Serena!  Man we're getting old.  Car games are still fun though, as is waiting for Mike at the photocopy place.  SEX!

Snowboarding was incredible!  Whistler was awesome with powdery snow; lucky for too, since I wiped out like crazy from lack of practice.  The drive up was long and icy, but totally worth it.  Thanks Mon for being so patient!

States shopping!!  Haha, thanks for belting out Glee songs with me Cass!  I still think my lyrics are better for Just the Way You Are. 

Trio Lunch:  Last Quarterly Meeting for a while!  Thanks for being you, Jade and Ben.  Haha, don't worry Ben, I'll be back.  It won't be nearly as fun for Jade to make fun of you without me around.  :D 

Chapters/Japadog:  Thanks for coming with me even though you had a bad day Kels!  Haha, the japadog hopefully made it better?  And the frantic scramble to check out books at Chapters??  

Of course these were just the big things.  There are so many things that I'm grateful for...  Thank you each and every one you guys!  

UP NEXT:

-last SJA night

-Wednesday ramen

-Thursday dinner 

-Friday!

-packing...groan...

Gastronomic Nirvana

Pied a Terre - fois gras, tenderloin medallion with anchovy butter, fries, creamed spinach, tomato

The Secret Garden - High tea; tea sandwiches, cakes

Kintaro - Cheese ramen

Thanks Kels, Cass, Athena, and Michelle!

New Beginnings

So, this is it; one of the last steps to leaving Vancouver, Home, for good.

Hopefully, this blog will help me keep some of my sanity in Beijing. At the very least, you'll hear interesting tales about my getting arrested for beating up (or getting beat up by) some guy on the subway.

So, thoughts about leaving:

1) Today, driving home on the highway from Delta, it was raining while the sky up ahead was a beautiful azure blue with the whitest marshmallow clouds. It was beautiful. Fall in Vancouver is beautiful. Hell, Vancouver is beautiful. To leave Vancouver seemed impossible merely 2 years ago, before I left to study, but in the words of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: "The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."

2) Having dinner with friends and simply hanging out is something I've taken for granted. Knowing there's a end date now makes everything so much more tangible. The laughs, the jokes, and wholly comfortable silences...

3) The air. Seriously, go outside a take a deep breath of air. Drink in the delicious coldness of it. I wish I could bottle it up and take it with me to Beijing...

4) Kudos to people who have left. Though one can always visit Vancouver again, to leave indefinitely is...terrifying. Thrilling, but terrifying.