Black Bear Watching Tour

Black Bear Watching Tour

Even though it had stopped raining long enough for us to set up our tents, eat, play and go to bed, by morning, It was raining again, so we were very thankful that Eric had brought a big tarp and wooden poles and had taught us how to protect our campsite from getting wet! We were excited about the rain, but we were glad to be dry! 

Our campsite was messy by Hong Kong standards and we were feeling a bit down and frustrated with all the dampness around us, but this didn’t stop the day from happening! Nope, Mimi woke us up and told us we had just a few minutes to be in the cars as we were late for our Black Bear Tour. We hadn’t slept in on purpose, Mimi had read the time wrong, and had phoned the place, and they were willing to wait for a few minutes. Luckily, the Bear Watching Tour was very close.

Even though the weather was not as good as we expected, we still managed to see two bears feeding in the wild. They didn’t care about the weather at all. They happily foraged for food along the shore line. They lift rocks to find critters and crabs underneath them. We learned that Black Bear cubs are mostly killed by their fathers, so the mothers are very protective of them, and because of this, you will never see a mother, father, and baby bear together – only a mother with her cubs.

As a Hong Konger city dweller, I was excited to see the Black bears as it was the first time I have been that close to dangerous wild animals – thankfully, we were in a boat, so we could easily get away if necessary. But they were so cute, I would have loved to have gotten even closer to them.

We also met Adam and Max on the boat, so the ride back was quite entertaining. Takky fell in love with Adam. He had really blonde hair and really blue eyes. Both Max and Adam were almost our age and very friendly. We enjoyed having fun with them.

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Redlen Technologies Tour

Redlen Technologies Tour

Redlen is the company which Eric works for. We were happy to have the opportunity of visiting his place of work. We got to meet Eric’s team. There is even one Hong Konger, Kam, but we were not allowed to speak Cantonese with him. His English was very good! 

We had to explain to him that in Canada, the only language we can speak is English, otherwise, we must pay $1.00 Canadian. Because Eric did the tour, we were allowed to go into special areas that visitors are not allowed in, but we were not allowed to take pictures beyond a certain point. This is because the sensors which are developed and made at Redlen technologies are top-secret as they are security and medical sensors.

Although, the technology is very high level, so very difficult to understand, it was still very interesting and educational to the process of how sensors are made.

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Road Trip to Tofino

Road Trip to Tofino

We travelled to Tofino in two cars. When we got there, we had to set up two tents! Honestly, setting up the tents was quite frustrating, I wanted to give up and let Mimi and Eric set up the tents, but I didn’t give up, because I wanted the chance to try and be successful as it was quite a challenge – and an interesting, even if frustrating one too. Don’t you think so?

To set up the tents, we separated into two groups. Takky, Emily, Steven and I were in one and the other four in the other group. Actually, to make things more fun, we decided to have a competition to see which team could set up their tent the fastest. However, we had no idea what a huge job it would be for us! It may seem weird, but this was truly my first time to have to set up a tent, and no one else in my group had ever set up a tent either. 

We have never had this chance in Hong Kong, because when we go camping all the tents are already set up for us, so the Hong Kong way is our comfort zone – where everything is prepared and well-done, teenagers don’t even have chance to take risk and challenge themselves! But Canada is different!

Youths can try everything they want to do, also, their parents and friends support whatever they are doing and help them to learn. So, in the end, I can honestly say that I am glad to have had this chance to grow and become more confident and mature!

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Goldstream Park

Goldstream Park

Today is very sunny and suitable for us to take a hike. Therefore, we went to Goldstream Park and hiked Gold Steam Trail with Trestle Bridge. There was beautiful with a long waterfall.

The bridges just terrified me! Actually, I can barely walk on the Trestle bridge because of acrophobia. Luckily, Mimi held my hands and helped me went through.

After a “horrible” walk, we had our lunch on the end of the bridge. I had my handmade sandwich which used egg, mayonnaise, lettuce, salami, cheese and tomato as ingredients.

Honestly, in this hike I was really enjoyed.Especially I saw many maple trees in the forest and also I collected some of them!

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Whale Watching

Whale Watching

Today I woke up very early to work on my blog. And around 9:00 a.m. we went to Victoria Harbour for our whale watching tour.

The weather was great, and the harbour was very interesting, because there are floating houses alongside the dock. People actually live in these houses all year along. I had never seen float homes. 

What an interesting way to live. After listening to a short safety briefing, we boarded a beautiful catamaran and started our journey out to sea. We didn't just get to watch the whales, we also got to see a rare type of Puffin with a red beak which is almost extinct, lots of other seabirds like seagulls and cormorants, and a colony of stellar sea lions which are on the endangered species list. There was a HUGE male. We also spotted Mink whales, but they were too far away for us to observe them well. 

We spotted some Mink whales but they were too far away to observe very well.

Finally, after sailing for almost 1.5 hours through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we found killer whales (Orcas) just across from Friday harbour. Although we got some good footage by using the zoom on Miss Smith's (Mimi’s) camera, we never got closer than 215m meters from them. 

This was due to ecological regulations that protect the Orcas from tourists or being hit by boats. So, we are hoping to see whales when we go bear watching in Tofino, because we will be taking another boat out to sea as well there. 

All in all, it was a great day, even though we were all a bit tired and still jet lagged. Luckily for us, Mimi sent us to bed very very early about 8 p.m, so that we could get a good ten hours of sleep! But by the time everyone had their showers, it was about 9 p.m. before we fell asleep, but we did manage to go 9 hours of sleep before we had to wake to up and head to Sooke for Ziplining and hiking in a Temperate Rainforest.

What an amazing country!

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Beacon Hill Park Petting Zoo

Beacon Hill Park Petting Zoo

After going to Chinatown, we headed up to Beacon Hill Park Petting Zoo. What I haven’t mentioned is that some of us had to take taxi’s when we traveled around Victoria and I was in charge of paying for and getting a receipt from the taxi cab driver, so I always had to be inside the taxi.

Hog

Llama

Sheep

Donkey

Peacock

It was so much fun at Beacon Hill Petting Zoo, because we got to see lots of different kinds of domesticated animals, and yes, we not only got to pet them, we also got to play with some of them, like the goats. The goats were so cute, because there were some very playful little babies. They liked to jump and play around. In fact, if you sat still, sometimes, they would come and jump right on top you – even try to stand on your back, shoulders, or head. I loved this activity, because for the first time in my life, I felt very close to animals.

One of them even standing on my back!

When we left the petting zoo, we climbed on a big old arbutus tree with some other kids. They were much smaller than us, so we helped them climb as well. This was a lot of fun.

Then we headed off to walk around Beacon Hill Park, and it was here that we met up with three Japanese students. They were so friendly and lovely to us. They dressed us up in their traditional clothes and shared their Japanese snacks with us, so we invited them to our Farewell Party. 

It was unfortunate that the two girls were headed to Toronto, because I really liked them, and they were so chatty, but it is exciting that Zorro can make it!! I hope he comes!! It is so great to speak English to others, even when they come from non-English speaking countries, because even though our English is not perfect, we can still communicate with each other. All of this interaction is really boosting my English-speaking confidence! I’m very proud of myself, because I am speaking English all the time. I rarely even think in Chinese anymore! 😜😜

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China Town

China Town

Today, we went to Chinatown which is also called Tong Ran Gai in Cantonese. I have only seen Chinatown via the television, so I couldn’t believe that I truly got to experience it in real time. In the early morning, we had a local tour, with John, our Canadian guide which was about the White Jade Tiger Story – a book we had taken up in class. It is an historical-adventure book about the life of the early Chinese workers at the time when the Canadian National Railway was being built. In the book, Jasmine is not sure she likes the idea of being stuck in Victoria while her father goes to China for a year. 

But on a field trip to Victoria's Chinatown, she mysteriously finds herself transported back in time to the early 1880s - a time when thousands of Chinese were contracted to build the Canadian Pacific Railway being constructed in BC's Fraser Canyon. In the maze of Chinatown's alleys and passages, she meets Keung, a teenage boy who has come to ‘Gold Mountain’ in search of his father, a railway labourer. Keung also has to find a jade amulet believed to have magical powers. Jasmine accompanies him to the Fraser Canyon only to discover that she and Keung are not alone in their search.😝

On the tour, we visited the places that the writer had used for the background of the book and where Jasmine and Keung went on their escapades. Because we had read the book in class and now were visiting the places, this made it the most interesting tour I have ever had. Also, if you have time, I would recommend you read the book. It is very good! And you will not only get to follow Jasmine and Keung’s journey, but you will surely learn something from this book as well.

We also saw a Chinese school there. 

After taking the tour, we are all hungry and thirsty. And since we had already planned to each lunch in Chinatown, we asked our tour guide to recommend the best Dim Sum restaurant. He recommended Don Mee’s.

 😋😋😋



We ordered lots of Dim Sum, for example, chicken feet, steamed dumplings, thin pancakes etc. I thought the food was quite bland, even though it looked similar to Hong Kong’s, the taste was definitely different. Mimi said that this might be because most Canadian restaurants will not add MSG to their food. MSG enhances the flavour of food, but is considered unhealthy. But regardless, it was great to try Chinese food in Canada!

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Noodle Box Restaurant

Noodle Box Restaurant

We then, went uptown to have a quick snack before doing a bit more shopping in the tourist shops. Mimi bought us an original Beaver Tail. No, it wasn’t a real beaver’s tail. It was a piece of dough, rolled out so it sort of looked like a beaver tail, and then it was cooked, brushed with melted butter, and sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon – very delicious!!!

We went to the Noodle Box Restaurant for dinner. We finally had Chinese stir-fried noodles!!!! I think we all miss Chinese food now, so it was good to order some traditional cruise. My noodle box was a little too sweet for me, and Linda’s was not quite right for here, so we traded our boxes and we were both happy! One thing that we did notice was that everyone in the restaurant was visiting, and no one, and I mean no one, but us, had their cell phones out. So, Mimi made us put ours away too and just spend our time visiting. Ironically, I really enjoyed this. I think we should eat more without our cells phones and talk more to each other, because it is certainly more enjoyable and better for our relationships.

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Royal BC Museum

Royal BC Museum

This morning we got up and did many types of water sports – kayaking, stand-up boarding, canoeing and paddling a Hobie Mirage. This was so much fun. Takky and I have taken kayaking lessons in Hong Kong, so we are very good at kayaking, but we both want to become better stand-up boarders.

 I know that some people think that water is dangerous, but I think that the water here is very safe. It is calm, and we have life jackets on so that if we do fall in the water, we can’t sink. Still, the water here is much calmer than in Hong Kong. This makes it much easier to learn water sports and gain confidence. I am so glad that we get to try out these sports, because they are helping to improve my physical self-confidence. I’m not a big sports person, so being able to do sports in such a wonderful environment helps me to have more courage, faith in myself, and confidence that I can do anything I put my mind to.

After our water sports, we went to the Royal BC Museum and spent three hours looking around it. The Royal BC Museum was founded in 1886 and it has three permanent galleries: natural history, modern history, and local First Nations’ history. The objects in the museum's collections speak volumes. There were so many things in it that I have either never seen or seen only in pictures. It is also very relevant, because it has a huge exhibit in modern history about human impact on climate change. It also has a number of interactive activities, which allowed us to explore and learn even more. Right now, they have a visiting Egypt exhibit.

So let's take a look at the Weaving!

 



Afterward I to the Natural History gallery. In the entrance, I got the chance to see an extinct woolly mammoth. It’s HUGE and looks like an adult elephant! As you know, its closest relative actually is the Asian elephant! According to the introduction, males reached shoulder heights between 2.7 to 3.4m and females reached 2.6–2.9m. Even though it was just a statue, I was awed that I had chance to take photos with it. Honestly, I can even imagine what I would feel if it was still alive and standing beside me! My guess is that I would scream, try to touch it, and then maybe run away very fast!

I really recommend you come and visit the BC Museum if you have the chance, because I think you will find something that interests you and it helps us understand our past and present, and to envision our future.

Snowy Owl 

Ocean Sunfish
Live throughout most of the world's seas

Red Box Crab
Tanner Crab
Alaska King Crab

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Imax Theatre

 Imax Theatre

We went to the Imax Theatre and watched Jumanji on a very HUGE screen in the same the we went to BC MUSEUM .


I learned that IMAX technology is Canadian technology, and I also learned that I can watch an English movie without any subtitles and still understand enough of it to enough it. This was a very good experience, and I think I have made a bit of a break-through. When I get back to Hong Kong, I am going to try and watch some English movies without subtitles and see how it goes.

This photo was taken after watching the movie.

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Zipline

Zipline

Can you imagine how early I woke up this morning? I woke up at 5:30 again! I can’t seem to sleep until 7:30, because I know I have a lot of work to do. So after brushing my teeth and having an avocado and bread as my breakfast, I spent my time organizing my blogs. Here is the photo of my breakfast.

Two hours later, we headed out to do ziplining! Ziplining is designed to enable an attached user to be propelled by gravity to travel from top to bottom on an inclined cable by being attached to a freely moving pulley. I was soooo nervous! Since I had never done ziplining before, my anxiety made me think about all the dangers.

But I want to do this, because I came to Canada to challenge myself, and I know I will never be able to do this activity in Hong Kong! Once we got to the Rainforest Zipline Centre and we met our safety team and guides, I felt a bit more confident. They made sure that all our harnesses fitted us and attached properly.

Our safety team and guides were made up of two very nice guys. Francis, who is studying sociology at the University of Victoria, gave me lots of encouragement and promised that he would keep me safe and look at me while I did ziplining. His encouragement helped calm me, so that when it finally became my turn to step off the platform and let gravity do its work, I took a deep breath and let go!

Ziplining is very exciting and the views were extremely beautiful! The zipline I enjoy the most was the one named "Spiderman", because we have enough time to go upside down.💪

Here is the Spiderman view!

Wow! That was awesome! I felt like I was flying while ziplining. I can’t deny that for ziplining you need a lot of courage, and the first time can be very scary, but don’t give up before facing your fear! Trust me – ziplining is wonderful and exciting at the same. You can see the view that you have never ever seen because you are flying through the air like a bird.

This was so incredibly amazing!!! I will tell you a little secret! The zipline I enjoyed the most was the one named ‘Spiderman’! Guess why! Because we had enough time to go upside down. It was one kilometer long!

Overall, we all enjoyed the ziplining. Of course, I highly recommend you try this at least once in your life!

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