Supernatural day two or how Misha and Mark made me cry

As I had to wait forever for my bus this morning, I didn't make it to the convention by 10 AM. Thus, I missed part of the opening ceremony. However, by the looks of it, the opening speech by Briana and Kim was pretty similar to the one yesterday, so it wasn't that bad.
The first panel was lead by Sebastian Roche, who played Balthazar on Supernatural. He is also well known for his role as Mikael on the Vampire Diaries. His act on stage was fantastic, he was singing most of the time and he just had such a surprisingly upbeat and euphoric personality that I really hadn't expected. I couldn't imagine that this smiling and intoxicating guy had played such a grim and serious character as Mikael. Consequently, I couldn't help but buy a photo op ticket with him. Sebastian was also making a lot of fun of Trump and his tiny hands during his panel.
The next act was Oscric Chau. I couldn't see his full panel as the Sebastian photo op overlapped with that panel. I didn't feel like I missed much, though, as I had already seen another panel by Osric yesterday. Since I couldn't think of any other interesting pose, I asked Sebastian to act like he was biting me on the picture. I guess I was the only one asking for a Vampire Diaries pose at a Supernatural convention, but it was definitely fun. After taking the picture, I kind of freaked out a bit cause just thinking about asking him for that pose made me cringe inside like 'OMG did I really just do that?!'.
Around noon there was a Supernatural costume contest. There were a few good costumes. Nevertheless, I wasn't really flashed by any of them. Especially the Castiel cosplayers were a bit disappointing, as they all didn't look too much like the real Castiel. In addition to that, I didn't even reconize some of the other characters that some people cosplayed - their costumes looked pretty much like workaday clothes.
After a lunch break, Mark Sheppard took the stage. I had really been looking forward to him, since I loved Crowley, the character Mark is playing. It was quite fun to listen to the questions of the audience. With Mark, the questions were sometimes even funnier than the answers. A girl in a wheelchair asked how long Crowley had been possessing Marks body. While the whole crowd was laughing at that question, she actually backed (or rolled) away from Mark and he commented that he had never seen anyone in a wheelchair run away that fast. He also took a walk with his 6 month old daughter through the auditorium, which was just adorable.
Just after the panel was over, I could go upstairs for my photo op with Mark Sheppard and Misha Collins! I was so excited to go in there and to meet my two favourite actors. When I saw Misha in person for the first time, I actually thought that he looked so much more handsome than I had expected. It was really hard to keep it together for the picture, but I managed somehow. I had thought about the pose I wanted for a while and I asked Misha to look like the devil and Mark to try and look like an angel, which seemed like the funniest and most ironic option to me. Since I didn't see what the two of them did during the picture, I had to wait anxiously for the result, which I could only pick up at the end of the show program.
After my photo op, a saw a girl painting a really amazing picture of Castiel. I talked to her and found out that she had taken part in GISHWHES this year, too. After that, I went back to the show room to watch a bidding auction.
The next panel was lead by two people: Rob Benedict a.k.a. Chuck a.k.a. God and Matt Cohen. It didn't really catch my attention too much, though, as I was already thinking about Misha Collins and the next panel. The only thing that did catch my attention was Matt proposing to a member of the audience for fun due to the request of a freind of that audience member.
Misha's panel was definitely cool, he talked a lot about GISHWHES and his family. He also proposed several times that people should try and sue him for some of the items of the GISHWHES hunt and other stuff he had said today. At the end of his panel, he was demonstrating together with Briana and Rob what 'the Eifeltower' looked like.
After all these panels were over, I went and picked up my picture with Misha and Mark... and after seeing that picture, I actually started crying because I was so flashed by this day and this experience and I thought that the two of them looked so amazing and did such a great job of fulfilling my picture request.
I then walked back to the hostel for a break. I had hoped that the walk would calm me down, but it didn't really help much. I think the last time I felt so overwhelmed was when I was in the Hogwarts World in Universal Studios LA, although today was maybe even more overwhelming.

Just past 9 PM, I left the hostel to go to the convention once again. This time, I picked up some dinner right away - a small portion of poutine.
I arrived at the convention just in time for the Louden Swain concert to start. The concert was a pretty nice rock concert with several of the cast members helping out in a song or two. Matt Cohan, Osric Chau, Kim Rhodas, Briana Buckmaster and Jensen Ackles each had the lead voice in a song while Mark Sheppard played the drums in the background sometimes. Jason Manns also joined Rob Benedict for a song. Rob and Jensen sang the song 'Fare Thee Well', which Rob had sung as God in the 'Don't call me Shurley' episode, as a duet, which was pretty cool. For the last song 'Puprle Rain', all the cast members that had taken part in the show tonight came on stage again, which was kind of epic.

After the concert, I went straight to the bus stop, where I had another little highlight: I saw a skunk for the first time. I didn't have to pay for the bus ride back to Granville Street, since a nice bus driver of a bus that was 'Not in service' picked me and a few other people up.

The first day of the Supernatural Convention

After not sleeping too well at the hostel, I arrived at the venue of the convention just around 10:15 AM. Apparently this was the perfect time to arrives since I barey had to wait in line for the registration. After checking out the vendors area, I took my seat and waited for the show to start. The hosts today were Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes, who both played police women on the show. They started off by announcing that they unofficially renamed the convention - now it was supposed to be 'Supernatural in PORNcouver'. During the afternoon, the two of them made a lot of jokes and suggestive comments that fit perfectly to this title. Next the house band 'Louden Swain' with lead singer Rob Benedict, who played Chuck/God, took the stage. He made a quick run through the audience and gave everyone who was lucky enough to sit in the aisle seat a high five. Since I had such a seat, I can now claim that 'God' touched my hand!
The first panel was lead by 'Death', who was played by Julian Richings. It was question time and I asked him what he felt when reading the script and finding out that Death was going to die. He answered that he found it quite curious and didn't expect Death to really stay dead.
Next there was a trivia game. I could play in the third and last round and I made it to the final three players before giving a wrong answer. I mostly guessed all of the answers though - the hard questions were just crazy.
The next act was singer and songwriter Jason Manns, who sang a few songs for us. At the end of the show program, I got an autograph from him.
After Jason Manns left, the actor Osric Chau, who played Kevon Tran, took the stage. He was actually talking a lot about 'Pokemon Go', cosplaying and other stuff, which was pretty fun. He also told us a story about going to some kind of award in a dress just because everyone told him that he shouldn't do that. It sounded pretty hilarious.
The final panel was lead by the hosts, Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes. After answering some questions, they actually brought two other minor actors on stage as a special surprise: Tyler Johnston and Katherine Ramdeen. They also played some kind of game with a few people from the audience, where they had to finish a sentence with certain words. All things considered, I really liked the two hosts. Especially Kim Rhodes was talking about just expressing yourself and your emotions, even if it's not 'fitting' for a woman, for example by saying 'fuck'. The two of them just seemed really fun to be around and very passionate. In my opinion they were totally different from the characters they played on Supernatural.

After that, the first part of todays program was over and I went back to the hostel in order to take a shower and have some dinner. I had decided to pic up something to eat on the way back to the convention. However, as it turned out there were almost no shops open after 9 PM and I couldn't find any decent place to eat something. In the end, I was happy to just find some hot dog truck where I could buy an all beef hot dog for 5 CAD. It was actually pretty tasty.
 Before I could finish my hot dog, I had to catch a bus that brought me back to the convention. This way, I arrived at 9:45 PM, which was just the time the karaoke night started. There were several members of the supernatural cast that we had already seen today on stage: Kim Rhodes, Briana Buckmaster, Rob Benedict, Osric Chau, Julian Richings and Tyler Johnston. In addition to that, there were Matt Cohan, the actor of John Winchester, and Erica Caroll, the actress of Hannah. They were all singing along with the groups of audience members that had signed up for a song on stage. In the end, the whole audience was singing along - no matter if they were on stage or not.
Some of the cast members had funny Game of Thrones costumes, for example Rob Benedict was wearing a Daenerys costume while Matt Cohan was dressed like Snow. Osric Chau appeared in some kind of superhero cosplay on stage. Nevertheless, the highlight for me was Julian Richings - it was hilarious to see Death dancing and jumping around on stage.
As I still had to get back to the hostel and I felt like it was getting a bit too noisy for me, I left after almost 2 hours. The last song I listened to was 'Don't stop believing', which was just the perfect ending for my evening. It was sung by a big group of people - the actors even helped someone in a wheelchair to get on stage for this.
 

After taking a bus to Granville Street, I was amazed by the number of people on that street. There were currently no cars allowed and everyone was either waiting to get into one of the clubs here or simply partying outside. Aparrently this was normal on a Friday night around here.

A ferry ride and the Capilano Suspension Bridge

I woke up an hour before I actually wanted to get up, which was good since it gave me some more time to pack and get ready. I had to take a bus at 9:30 in order to catch the ferry to Vancouver at 11 AM.
During the ferry hide, there was an interesting presentation on a glass sponge reef that the ferry was driving over. Glass sponges are some kind of sea sponge that had been believed to be extinct until the reef was found in the BC waters. This particular kind of sea sponge can only be found in the BC waters and has been growing there for about 9 thousand years.
I also ran into Simone on the ferry just before we arrived in Vancouver.
After getting off the ferry, I got on the first bus in the direction of Downtown, where I arrived just past 2 PM.
Even though I was too early, I could already check in at the hostel. Afterwards, I got a slice of pizza and some ice cream from stores that I had already wanted to check out the last time I was in Vancouver. 

Since it was just past 4 PM when I was done eating, I had enough time to catch the last free shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I hadn't wanted to spend so much money for the entry fee during my last trip to Vancouver but since I felt like I was on holiday now and the entry was 20% off after 5 PM, I decided to go there and check it out today. The bus ride to the bridge was already a small highlight: The bus driver was giving us a lot of interesting information on Canada, BC and Vancouver while talking with a strange accent, which was difficult to understand but quite fun to listen to.
The Suspension Bridge itself was fun to walk on, since it was moving a lot, which made it hard to keep one's balance. There was also the 'Treetop Adventure', where you could walk on seven rather small suspended bridges between platforms which were attached to the bark of Douglas firs. Furthermore, you could see some raptors up close along one of the walks.

As it was already late in the day I was the only participant in a very interesting nature tour, where I learned to recognize the Western Hemlock, who can withstand fire due to it's thick bark, as well as the Douglas Fir, which was nicknamed the baby of the forest. I also learned that the maple trees that grow here don't produce maple syrup as the winters are not cold enough.
After walking along the cliff walk which offered more amazing views and the sight of trees actually growing in the stony cliff walls, I took part in the history tour. Just like during the nature tour I was the only participant and I really enjoyed this private lesson. Among other things the tour guide explained some of the totem poles to me. One of the poles told a tale of how mosquitoes came into being.
Before leaving, I listened to a female performer playing the guitar and singing melancholic songs.
On the free shuttle bus back, I could see a very beautiful sunset while we were crossing a bridge.
I had to walk a little bit from where the bus had dropped me off. Thus I was back at the hostel just past 9 PM.

Working and packing

My 6 hour shift at 'Royal Garden' seemed to take forever today, even though we were busy doing some restock. Thus, I was glad to be done with work at 6 PM. I was looking forward to finally having a few days off. However, I wasn't looking forward to packing for my trip to Vancouver. So after coming home, I really took my time eating dinner and taking a shower. Katrina insisted that we watched some more 'White Collar'. Thus I had something else keeping me from packing. Just before 9 PM, I finally started packing, but it really took a while. All things considered, it was a really slow evening. Still there will probably be enough excitement in Vancouver during the following days.

Getting a haircut

I had been thinking about getting a haircut for a while and I just couldn't decide if I really wanted to do it or not. Since today seemed like a good day to get a haircut, I tried to finally make up my mind and asked a few people for their opinion. Everyone I had asked today (my roommate and several coworkers) said that I should go and get that haircut. Consequently, after my 4 hour shift at the gift store, I went to a hairdresser. At first I went to Aveda, since I had heard that they had student hairdressers who could cut hair for a fraction of the usual price. Unfortunately, they didn't really do walk-ins and as I didn't feel like waiting until Friday, I decided to try and find another place. I kept walking North since I remembered seeing another big hairdresser's shop just two blocks from the Ocean Island Inn. As it turned out, that hairdresser was the 'Richard Mar Advanced School of Hairstyling', which also offered haircuts by students for a very cheap price compared to normal hairdressers. I got one of the students, who was just a few weeks away from her final exam, to cut my hair. When I asked her about it, she told me that she had chosen to become a hairdresser because her grandma used to cut her hair when she was a child and that had made her feel special and she wanted to give that feeling to other people. I felt that she did a really good job, although the hairdresser who was inspecting her job and giving her some advice was the one who actually finished my haircut. Even though I had been very uneasy about my visit at the hairdresser (especially since I wasn't sure if I could explain to them how I wanted my hair to look like in English), I was extremely happy with the result. It's hard to belief that I only paid 23 CAD (tip included) for my great haircut.
Back at home, I had a snack and read a little bit before going on a walk with Katrina, Jakki and Jasper along Dallas Road. We talked a bit about the issues that the First Nations People used to face or actually still faced and what they went through in the past. I actually had no idea that Canada had this kind of discrimination issues since I hadn't heard about it before.

Back at home, I made some dinner with my chicken and rice leftovers, which turned out a lot better than yesterday. We concluded the evening by watching 'White Collar' again.

Evening walk at Cadboro Bay

After my 4 hour shift from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM, I didn't leave the store immediately. Instead, I tried on some pajamas which I had been eyeing for a while. As I really liked them (there was a bear on them and the phrase 'Bearly awake'), I ended up buying them. Afterwards, I walked to 'Overboard' where Jennifer was currently working. There was a special sale in Overboard where you could get a free bag with flip-flops for every purchase over 40 CAD. I didn't want to spent that much but I really wanted the flip-flops, so I asked Jennifer if she'd give me one of the bags if I just purchased some magnet. She agreed (according to her I probably could have just taken one of the bags, but I would have felt bad about doing that) and so I got another pair of flip-flops and a bag today.
Before catching the bus home, I still bought some groceries at the small supermarket I usually went to in Downtown.
Back at home, I made chicken with rice for lunch. Unfortunately, the chicken legs didn't turn out to well as they were a bit too dark on the outside and partly a bit bloody close to the bone. So I still had some granola after that to get a better taste in my mouth. I spent the rest of the afternoon just reading a bit.

Just before 7 PM, Katrina went with me and the two dogs (once again she had Jasper over for about a week) to Cadboro Bay for a nice evening walk. It was a really nice sight and as usually, I really enjoyed being at the ocean. Since walking through the sand of the beach with shoes was a bit annoying, I took my shoes off again. Nevertheless, walking barefoot wasn't much easier as there were a lot of small pieces of wood and other stuff on the beach.
Jasper was running around like crazy most of the time, playing with other dogs and running into the water. As he was so big, we really had to be careful that he wouldn't get us all wet when shaking his fur. Still, it was definitely cute to watch him, although Katrina had to give him a short shower to get all the dirt off his fur back at home.

This evening, Katrina and I watched two more episodes of 'White Collar' while enjoying some popcorn and ketchup chips. I also really enjoyed the tea I drank - a package from Germany with my favourite tea had just arrived today.

Background Music - Part 2

Apart from opening AND closing the store today, my day wasn't too exciting - I can sum it up in a few sentences:
I had another split shift today. At first I had to work from 9 AM to 1 PM at 'Royal Garden', which meant that I had to open the store. After that, I had a 4.5 hour break. During that time, I managed to go home, take a shower and cook lunch. My evening shift from 5:30 to 9:30 was my last shift at 'Overboard' and once again, I had to close the store on my own.
It had cooled down considerably today, so that I was actually freezing while sitting at the bus stop at night in a sweater.
To make this entry more interesting, I thought I could write another post about the music I hear at the stores every day...

Simple Plan - Summer Paradise


Charlie Puth - One Call Away


Jesse Labelle - Heartbreak Coverup


Rachel Platten - Fight Song


Wiz Khalifa - See you again


Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop the Feeling


Daniel Powter - Crazy all my life


Ed Sheeran - Photograph


Adele - Hello


One Republic - I lived