Celebration of Light. Celebration of Life!

Something has got to be said about festivals. Everyone at their best. With people in good moods, well dressed, good music and this intangible vibe that makes you feel like you are on top of the world. There are big smiles everywhere you look and food trucks filled with yummy treats.

Yes, festivals in all their "hipster" glory are incredibly fun.

So what makes this one so special? Why am I writing about it? Well this is the Honda Celebration of Light and this is only the first night of three.

The main focus of this event: fireworks!

Three countries competing against one another in an attempt to show of their firework prowess and it all starts with the Netherlands tonight.

So here I am, sitting on a log on the beach surrounded by thousands of people with a bag of mini-donuts and a lemonade and I could not be happier. Soon the sun will set right in front of me and then as night falls the fireworks will begin.

I feel like I am seven years old again! I can just imagine my sister and I running around on the beach on a sugar high that will keep my parents up all night, kicking up sand onto other people's blankets and screaming wildly.

There is a potent stench of weed wafting over me and I think for the first time in my life that it may actually be legal. I am certain that I will be high by the beginning of the fireworks but I am too enthralled by this experience to care.

Yes, this is life. And this is what it feels like to be living. This is the reason why I have left my loved ones, my home and my country. Not because they were not good enough, but because I have this unquenchable thirst to explore.

And this festival, although it promises to be incredible, is only the beginning! 

Bum in the Butter McGinn

Recently my mother has taken to calling me “Bum in the Butter McGinn”. Now I don’t know if this is one of those well-known English sayings or if it is another one of my family’s crazy sayings that has been used so often in my life that I assume it to be normal, but either way it comes down to this; I always seem to land with my bum in the butter.

Apparently this means that I somehow, magically always end up in the best possible situation often by complete mistake. And for once in my life, I couldn’t agree more with my mom. She is one-hundred percent correct this time; I am in the most incredible situation.

It has been a little over a week since I landed in Vancouver and since then I have experienced some of the most incredible things. Some of them were really daunting and scary, whilst others I couldn’t wait for but all of them have reconfirmed my wanderlust!

Vancouver is an incredible city and foodie heaven, which is lucky for me because I have a little fat girl who lives in my head who leads me astray whenever possible. This means everything from poutine (chips with cheese and gravy) and sliders to yummy Asian stir fry’s and Alaskan king crab, not to mention all of the yummy donuts! But even my little fat girl wasn’t ready for what awaited me at Kirin restaurant.

I am staying with a Taiwanese family who have been kind enough to take me with on some of their excursions. This included a tour of Stanley Park and Granville Island, some huge feasts and a night at Tojo’s (the restaurant where Californian rolls were invented). It also included a tasting menu at Kirin’s.

For those that don’t know, Kirin is a Cantonese restaurant frequented by the multitude of Asians who live in Vancouver and when I walked in to find that I was the only white person, I immediately got excited. Only the best Asian restaurants are filled with Asians.

But oh, was I in for a surprise.

There was food everywhere I could look and the Lazy Susan in the centre of our table was buckling under the weight of all the glorious food. My little fat girl was dancing on my brain and I was completely overwhelmed. The first couple of courses were great until suddenly I looked down at my plate and saw what could only be a duck’s foot.

Yes, you read that correctly!

A duck’s foot, complete with webbings, was sitting on my plate staring up at me and I was lost for words. I had tried all of the weird and wonderful things that they had put on my plate up until this point and being a farm girl, I am no stranger to life’s weirder cuts of meat, but this was destined to be a bit much for me.

I stared back at it, daring it to run right off the plate, but it wouldn’t budge and I slowly looked up to find 10 pairs of eyes staring at me expectantly. I am certain that they could see the fear in my eyes, and I gulped hard before I finally prodded it with my chopsticks. I slowly picked it up and put it to my mouth… and that is as much as I can tell you about this story without physically being ill.

All I can say is that gooey, chewy duck foot webbings are not a thing that I will be trying again anytime soon.  In fact if I never have to eat duck feet again, then I will sleep easy for the rest of my life.

The worst part was looking back up after I finally managed to swallow this gross thing and seeing everyone looking at me, waiting to hear what I thought of it. I daren’t tell them that their favourite part of the meal was now doing cartwheels in my belly and that if it wasn’t’ for sheer will power I would be throwing up. So I smiled nervously and was saved by the high-pitched squeal of their three year old daughter who had just gone plunging to the floor in a hysterical fit of laughter… at my expense no doubt.

The meal continued, although I was thoroughly put off and didn’t touch my plate again for the rest of the evening. But as I looked around the table and heard the different languages and snippets of conversation and laughter, I realised just how lucky I was to be experiencing something so authentic and so different to what I know.

After all, this is the reason that I travel. And if living in Vancouver, rent-free, with this family (and being paid for it) allows me to travel and experience these wonderful things then yes, I think I certainly have landed with my bum in the butter.

I can only hope that they will not stir-fry it!