After getting up around 9 AM and taking a shower, I pretty much wasted the morning doing nothing. Around noon, I had the leftover fish with rice from yesterday for lunch.
I had to work from 2:45 to 11:15 PM and so I left the house around 2 PM. The afternoon was rather quiet, so the first few hours of my shift passed rather slowly.
There were three cruise ships in the evening so it was at least a little busy after 7 PM. I guess there weren't too many customers but they made quite a mess so that my coworker Amy and me were busy folding and putting t-shirts away until well past 10 PM. We also had some time to chat, which was nice. It was really starting to get cooler now and Amy was actually freezing a bit as she was wearing a skirt and sandals. It seemed that the summer was really over now, but at least we still had some sunshine now and then.
I got home around 11:40 PM and had some 'Cheerios' as a night snack before getting ready to go to bed. Everyone else in the house was apparently already asleep.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Friday, September 2, 2016
Hummingbirds
As I didn't have to work, I slept in until 11 AM before getting up.
Today, there were two hummingbirds in the garden so I finally managed to take a picture of a hummingbird. I had been trying to take a picture of a hummingbird for a while, but even though those little birds were quite common around here, they were usually gone so fast that I couldn't even turn my camera on.
Around noon, Katrina had to run some errands and since I needed to buy water and some other stuff at save-on-foods, I was very happy that Katrina could drop me off and later pick me up again at the supermarket.
It had been raining this morning but as the day progressed, the weather got more and more nice and sunny. Consequently, I spent the afternoon reading outside. Later that day, I fried some fish for a late lunch.
This evening, I had to work at 'Royal Garden'. As I hadn't worked in the store for more than a week, I actually enjoyed my shift today. It wasn't too busy but I also wasn't too bored. In addition to that, I could chat a bit with my coworker Amy. Furthermore, I got some grapes from my coworker Debbie, which was a nice surprise - I guess that she had grown them in her garden.
When I got home around 11 PM, I still had some dinner before getting ready for bed.
Today, there were two hummingbirds in the garden so I finally managed to take a picture of a hummingbird. I had been trying to take a picture of a hummingbird for a while, but even though those little birds were quite common around here, they were usually gone so fast that I couldn't even turn my camera on.
Around noon, Katrina had to run some errands and since I needed to buy water and some other stuff at save-on-foods, I was very happy that Katrina could drop me off and later pick me up again at the supermarket.
It had been raining this morning but as the day progressed, the weather got more and more nice and sunny. Consequently, I spent the afternoon reading outside. Later that day, I fried some fish for a late lunch.
This evening, I had to work at 'Royal Garden'. As I hadn't worked in the store for more than a week, I actually enjoyed my shift today. It wasn't too busy but I also wasn't too bored. In addition to that, I could chat a bit with my coworker Amy. Furthermore, I got some grapes from my coworker Debbie, which was a nice surprise - I guess that she had grown them in her garden.
When I got home around 11 PM, I still had some dinner before getting ready for bed.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Working in the warehouse and celebrating at home
This morning, Margo joined me on my way to work, since it was her first day of work - she started working in a shop that bakes and sells macarons.
I had a long and boring shift at the warehouse today. I had been supposed to start at 7:30 AM but since I didn't feel like getting up at 5:30 and working at the warehouse was more optional, I had been able to change my starting time to 9 AM. Originally, I had planned to work until 4:30 but as all my coworkers were already leaving around 4 PM and I didn't have a key, I had to leave earlier, too. This was actually quite good - I had had to fold t-shirts all day long, which had been so boring and tiring. Thus, I was happy to be done a bit earlier, even if I will miss that time on my paycheck.
After coming home, I heated up some leftover food from yesterday for dinner and watched an episode of 'White Collar' with Katrina. Afterwards, I took a shower.
When I was done with my shower, I joined Katrina, Margo and our new roommate Tuulia from Finland in the kitchen. Margo had bought some wine in order to celebrate her first day of work and we were chatting a lot while sharing it. Nevertheless, as I am usually not feeling too good after drinking wine, I only drank one little glass of wine while the others had three glasses each in order to finish the bottle. We talked about a lot of different things, for example our day today, the different languages we speak, my ongoing obsession with Supernatural, and Reiki. The others made me aware of my habit of rubbing my hands together, which I had never noticed before.
I had a long and boring shift at the warehouse today. I had been supposed to start at 7:30 AM but since I didn't feel like getting up at 5:30 and working at the warehouse was more optional, I had been able to change my starting time to 9 AM. Originally, I had planned to work until 4:30 but as all my coworkers were already leaving around 4 PM and I didn't have a key, I had to leave earlier, too. This was actually quite good - I had had to fold t-shirts all day long, which had been so boring and tiring. Thus, I was happy to be done a bit earlier, even if I will miss that time on my paycheck.
After coming home, I heated up some leftover food from yesterday for dinner and watched an episode of 'White Collar' with Katrina. Afterwards, I took a shower.
When I was done with my shower, I joined Katrina, Margo and our new roommate Tuulia from Finland in the kitchen. Margo had bought some wine in order to celebrate her first day of work and we were chatting a lot while sharing it. Nevertheless, as I am usually not feeling too good after drinking wine, I only drank one little glass of wine while the others had three glasses each in order to finish the bottle. We talked about a lot of different things, for example our day today, the different languages we speak, my ongoing obsession with Supernatural, and Reiki. The others made me aware of my habit of rubbing my hands together, which I had never noticed before.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Walking around the Cedar Hill Golf Course
Just before noon, I caught a ride to Downtown with Katrina. I didn't have to work today but I still paid a short visit to my workplace in order to pick up my pay check and to talk about a few things with the store manager, Grace. After that, I went to CIBC to put my check on my account and to withdraw my rent. I also went to the Bay Center to buy a new bus pass for next month. Furthermore, I bought some vegetables at the grocery store in Downtown and some fresh bread at the bakery 'Wild Fire'.
After taking care of all these errands, I went back home where I cooked myself some vegetables with rice for lunch. I was still quite exhausted from the past few days, so I didn't do much this afternoon.
However, this evening I went with Katrina, Margo, and Jakki on a walk around the Cedar Hill Golf Course. According to Katrina, it was a 3.7 km walk, which was just perfect this evening. As it had rained a bit during the afternoon, I had brought an umbrella. Luckily, it didn't rain anymore and we could enjoy a nice walk. Katrina complained a little bit about the brown leaves everywhere. Since she was accustomed to very colorful autumn leaves in Ontario, the fall time here in British Columbia didn't appeal to her. I didn't mind the brown color at all. In fact, I still enjoyed the nature around me and in my opinion, the leaves were colorful enough.
In the evening, Katrina and I watched two more episodes of White Collar while eating popcorn and ketchup chips.
After taking care of all these errands, I went back home where I cooked myself some vegetables with rice for lunch. I was still quite exhausted from the past few days, so I didn't do much this afternoon.
However, this evening I went with Katrina, Margo, and Jakki on a walk around the Cedar Hill Golf Course. According to Katrina, it was a 3.7 km walk, which was just perfect this evening. As it had rained a bit during the afternoon, I had brought an umbrella. Luckily, it didn't rain anymore and we could enjoy a nice walk. Katrina complained a little bit about the brown leaves everywhere. Since she was accustomed to very colorful autumn leaves in Ontario, the fall time here in British Columbia didn't appeal to her. I didn't mind the brown color at all. In fact, I still enjoyed the nature around me and in my opinion, the leaves were colorful enough.
In the evening, Katrina and I watched two more episodes of White Collar while eating popcorn and ketchup chips.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
The Queen Elizabeth Park and the ferry ride back home (to Victoria)
After eating breakfast and packing all my stuff this morning, I left my bagpack in the luggage room of the hostel and took a bus to the Queen Elizabeth Park. The bus ride took about 45 minutes and brought me somewhere South of Downtown Vancouver - an area I hadn't been to before.
There were a lot of beautiful flowers planted artistically in two big Gardens. In addition to that, there were several viewpoints that offered a good view of the city and surrounding mountains... Well they would have offered a good view if the sky had been clear. Unfortunately, it was rather cloudy today. I spend a lot of time just walking through the flower gardens and enjoying the nature around me. There was also a big fountain which I watched for a while.
Since I thought that there might be another nice park nearby, I walked a bit around the neighborhood. However, the other park, which I had seen on a map, didn't really seem accessible. Thus, I went back to the Queen Elizabeth Park, where I had a small snack for lunch. I took a bus back to Downtown Vancouver just before 2 PM.
I got off the bus close to the SWAP office, as I still had to check if there was any mail for me. Afterwards, I decided to try and check out if I could find today's filming location of Supernatural. I knew that it was supposed to be in an old Canadian Post building. I also roughly knew the location of the building - it was only a few blocks from the SWAP office.
On the way to the old Canadian Post building, I actually ran into another filming set. As it turned out, they were filming scenes for 'The Flash', which didn't really interest me. Thus, I didn't bother trying to catch a glimpse and kept going.
After walking around the old Canadian Post building at 349 W Georgia Street twice, I stopped at the entrance to an underground parking garage. Apparently, I wasn't the only one looking for the location. There was already another Supernatural fan watching the entrance. She told me that she might have caught a glimpse of Jared but she wasn't entirely sure. We could see several people, but none of them was an actor. I did however reconize some of the helpers from the previous film set. After a while, two more people came along looking for the Supernatural set. We chatted a bit while watching the entrance. Two of the other fans were from Germany and the third one was from the US.
The crew seemed to be on a break now, as a lot of people were coming out for a while. Someone took two dogs out for a walk, who were apparently the dogs of Jared and Jensen (a German Shepherd and a Cockapoo). I petted the German Shepherd before they left for their walk.
Before I had to leave in order to have enough time to catch my ferry, the assistent director Kevin Parks talked with us for a few minutes. I didn't know who he was then, but I had already seen him and shaken his hand the day before on the other set. When I asked him about it, he said that they would be filming until April, usually from Monday to Friday with some weeks off for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thus, with the hope of maybe getting another glimpse of a Supernatural set in November, I quickly left to pick up my stuff from the hostel.
I had planned to play it safe and take an earlier skytrain than absolutely necessary in order to catch the bus and then the ferry at 6 PM. However, I had also planned to meet with Jacinta, whom I had met at the hostel a few days ago (she had been my roommate for two days) and who also wanted to go to Victoria today. Her bus was late and as I was waiting for her, we barely managed to catch the last possible sky train for the 6 o'clock ferry. Luckily, the sky train and the bus were both on time so that we managed to get to the ferry terminal on time.
The ferry ride was rather uneventful. Like usually, I chose a nice spot outside, which offered a great view of the ocean. Jacinta and I chatted a lot, although I kept talking a lot about Supernatural, GISHWHES and such things. I guess I am still too obsessed with that. I also told Jacinta about some of the other things I had seen and done here in Canada and the US.
After a while, it got really cold outside. We put on our jackets, which didn't help too much. In the end, we still stayed outside until just before the ship entered the Swartz Bay ferry harbour.
The bus ride back to Victoria seemed quite long. In fact, we had taken the 72, so the bus ride was actually a bit longer. I got off close to the Ocean Island Inn with Jacinta in order to show her how to get to the hostel before catching a bus home, where I arrived just around 9:30 PM.
There were a lot of beautiful flowers planted artistically in two big Gardens. In addition to that, there were several viewpoints that offered a good view of the city and surrounding mountains... Well they would have offered a good view if the sky had been clear. Unfortunately, it was rather cloudy today. I spend a lot of time just walking through the flower gardens and enjoying the nature around me. There was also a big fountain which I watched for a while.
Since I thought that there might be another nice park nearby, I walked a bit around the neighborhood. However, the other park, which I had seen on a map, didn't really seem accessible. Thus, I went back to the Queen Elizabeth Park, where I had a small snack for lunch. I took a bus back to Downtown Vancouver just before 2 PM.
I got off the bus close to the SWAP office, as I still had to check if there was any mail for me. Afterwards, I decided to try and check out if I could find today's filming location of Supernatural. I knew that it was supposed to be in an old Canadian Post building. I also roughly knew the location of the building - it was only a few blocks from the SWAP office.
On the way to the old Canadian Post building, I actually ran into another filming set. As it turned out, they were filming scenes for 'The Flash', which didn't really interest me. Thus, I didn't bother trying to catch a glimpse and kept going.
After walking around the old Canadian Post building at 349 W Georgia Street twice, I stopped at the entrance to an underground parking garage. Apparently, I wasn't the only one looking for the location. There was already another Supernatural fan watching the entrance. She told me that she might have caught a glimpse of Jared but she wasn't entirely sure. We could see several people, but none of them was an actor. I did however reconize some of the helpers from the previous film set. After a while, two more people came along looking for the Supernatural set. We chatted a bit while watching the entrance. Two of the other fans were from Germany and the third one was from the US.
The crew seemed to be on a break now, as a lot of people were coming out for a while. Someone took two dogs out for a walk, who were apparently the dogs of Jared and Jensen (a German Shepherd and a Cockapoo). I petted the German Shepherd before they left for their walk.
Before I had to leave in order to have enough time to catch my ferry, the assistent director Kevin Parks talked with us for a few minutes. I didn't know who he was then, but I had already seen him and shaken his hand the day before on the other set. When I asked him about it, he said that they would be filming until April, usually from Monday to Friday with some weeks off for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thus, with the hope of maybe getting another glimpse of a Supernatural set in November, I quickly left to pick up my stuff from the hostel.
I had planned to play it safe and take an earlier skytrain than absolutely necessary in order to catch the bus and then the ferry at 6 PM. However, I had also planned to meet with Jacinta, whom I had met at the hostel a few days ago (she had been my roommate for two days) and who also wanted to go to Victoria today. Her bus was late and as I was waiting for her, we barely managed to catch the last possible sky train for the 6 o'clock ferry. Luckily, the sky train and the bus were both on time so that we managed to get to the ferry terminal on time.
The ferry ride was rather uneventful. Like usually, I chose a nice spot outside, which offered a great view of the ocean. Jacinta and I chatted a lot, although I kept talking a lot about Supernatural, GISHWHES and such things. I guess I am still too obsessed with that. I also told Jacinta about some of the other things I had seen and done here in Canada and the US.
After a while, it got really cold outside. We put on our jackets, which didn't help too much. In the end, we still stayed outside until just before the ship entered the Swartz Bay ferry harbour.
The bus ride back to Victoria seemed quite long. In fact, we had taken the 72, so the bus ride was actually a bit longer. I got off close to the Ocean Island Inn with Jacinta in order to show her how to get to the hostel before catching a bus home, where I arrived just around 9:30 PM.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Grouse Mountain and a peek at a Supernatural set
After sleeping, I was feeling a bit more like myself this morning. However, I was still obsessed with Supernatural and considering to spend the day searching all over the city for possible filming locations. As I was aware of how big Vancouver was, I decided against this waste of time and took a shuttle bus to Grouse Mountain instead. I had already bought my entry ticket for the skyride before coming to Vancouver thus not going would have been a waste.
Grouse Mountain was just a few minutes away from the Capilano Suspension Bridge, so that I already knew most of the way. There was a German tourist sitting next to me and when she found out that I was German, too, she kept talking about different places she had visited in Canada and other stuff, which was interesting at first but then actually annoyed me since I had wanted to listen to the information the bus driver was giving us. In the end, I only got half of what the bus driver was saying and half of what the German tourist was telling me.
After we arrived at the bottom of the mountain, I went straight to the skyride. At first I queued up until I realized that I didn't need to due to already having a ticket. The ride up was nice and sometimes a bit shaky whenever the inclination of the gondola changed.
The first thing I did at the top of the mountain was to walk to the bear compound. Even though someone was explaining about the two bears here and their hibernation habits (even though they won't eat, drink or pee, they will still move and stretch every day during their hibernation), the bears were nowhere to be found.
Thus I went to see a bird raptor show instead. It was pretty cool to see a hawk, a turkey vulture, an owl and a falcon up close. They were flying right in front of the audience and posing on poles so that I could make some really cool pictures.
Next, I decided to go up to the top of Grouse mountain. At first I was a bit insecure about hiking since there was a sign saying that 'hiking is not recommended' and a bear warning. As there were many other people taking the trail and it looked actually more like a street than just a path, I went anyway (and didn't encounter any bears here). The walk up offered several beautiful views of mountains, the sea and the city.
After arriving at the top, I sat there for a while and ate a snack before I walked back down.
The famous lumberjack show had started about 15 minutes before I arrived at the show venue. I still watched the rest of the show for a while. It was kind of weird - at first two lumberjacks were having a competition and afterwards, a third one who was posing as a tourist was climbing up a high tree and making some dangerous looking stunts.
As there was still no sight of the bears after the show, I decided to hike around the area some more. I walked halfway up a path that was supposed to lead to another mountain (I walked until it would have gotten a bit more challenging). I actually enjoyed this path the most as there weren't any other people around. I also managed to see a really cute little chipmunk running across the path.
When I arrived back at the bear compound, the bears were finally running around and looking for food somewhere in the little ponds. They were really interesting to watch for a while.
Next, I walked around some more and with the idea of Supernatural filming somewhere in my mind, I actually paid very close attention to a group of workers somewhere down a hiking trail. The group looked like it might be a filming crew at a first glance but unfortunately, they were really only working on the slopes.
Before leaving the mountain, there was another lumberjack show. Consequently I could watch the beginning of the show that I had missed earlier.
After having to wait for the shuttle for a whie, it quickly brought me back to Canada Place. I remembered seeing a live video of Misha Collins somewhere close to the Canada Place about a month ago and since I was still on my crazy Supernatural trip, I walked there to check that place out again. There was actually a lot going on in that area - there was some American sport game event? Nevertheless, there was nothing related to the Supernatural show. Thus I walked back to the hostel.
Just after I got ready to go out and eat a little something for dinner, I discovered that someone had posted current Supernatural filming locations online. Even though I hadn't eaten much all day, I decided to try my luck and go to check the locations out. There were two locations posted and I tried walking to the closer one. I couldn't really find it, though and rechecking the online information made me believe that the other location would be the more likely bet. Thus, I just caught a bus and went there.
The bus drove through some rather bad looking areas: There were a lot of homeless people trying to sell their stuff on the street. However, the area where I got off didn't look too bad anymore and after walking to the wrong direction at first, I quickly found a film set (at Clark Drive and Franklin Street).
As it turned out, there was really some filming for Supernatural season 12 episode 5 going on. There weren't any of the usual actors present, though. It was just a really short scene where some woman in a fancy white dress walked up the a building and entered through a door. They filmed that scene about three times before wrapping up for the day.
Even though I didn't get to see any of the actors again (I heard that Jared and Jensen were in Phoenix or somewhere), it was cool to be able to watch the making of a scene. I wasn't the only one watching - there were actually several fans who had found their way to the set. We were moved around a little bit so that we wouldn't be in the picture. The crew members were all really friendly and didn't seem to mind us watching at all, which was cool. I can't wait to see that scene on TV, though.
Just when I was about to leave, one of the other fans mentioned that she had some fruits she couldn't take with her across the border and thus would have to toss now. She was looking for someone to give it to and since I am always happy about some free goods, I happily took it from her.
I took the first bus that went past the filming location and luckily it brought me directly to the hostel. It was already 9:30 PM and I felt like I should really eat something reasonable. As my coworker Jennifer had recomended 'The Moose', which was right around the corner, I decided to go there. I had a 'Moose Burger' (it was only a normal beef burger, though) and some cranberry juice, which was rather cheap and pretty tasty.
Grouse Mountain was just a few minutes away from the Capilano Suspension Bridge, so that I already knew most of the way. There was a German tourist sitting next to me and when she found out that I was German, too, she kept talking about different places she had visited in Canada and other stuff, which was interesting at first but then actually annoyed me since I had wanted to listen to the information the bus driver was giving us. In the end, I only got half of what the bus driver was saying and half of what the German tourist was telling me.
After we arrived at the bottom of the mountain, I went straight to the skyride. At first I queued up until I realized that I didn't need to due to already having a ticket. The ride up was nice and sometimes a bit shaky whenever the inclination of the gondola changed.
The first thing I did at the top of the mountain was to walk to the bear compound. Even though someone was explaining about the two bears here and their hibernation habits (even though they won't eat, drink or pee, they will still move and stretch every day during their hibernation), the bears were nowhere to be found.
Thus I went to see a bird raptor show instead. It was pretty cool to see a hawk, a turkey vulture, an owl and a falcon up close. They were flying right in front of the audience and posing on poles so that I could make some really cool pictures.
Next, I decided to go up to the top of Grouse mountain. At first I was a bit insecure about hiking since there was a sign saying that 'hiking is not recommended' and a bear warning. As there were many other people taking the trail and it looked actually more like a street than just a path, I went anyway (and didn't encounter any bears here). The walk up offered several beautiful views of mountains, the sea and the city.
After arriving at the top, I sat there for a while and ate a snack before I walked back down.
The famous lumberjack show had started about 15 minutes before I arrived at the show venue. I still watched the rest of the show for a while. It was kind of weird - at first two lumberjacks were having a competition and afterwards, a third one who was posing as a tourist was climbing up a high tree and making some dangerous looking stunts.
As there was still no sight of the bears after the show, I decided to hike around the area some more. I walked halfway up a path that was supposed to lead to another mountain (I walked until it would have gotten a bit more challenging). I actually enjoyed this path the most as there weren't any other people around. I also managed to see a really cute little chipmunk running across the path.
When I arrived back at the bear compound, the bears were finally running around and looking for food somewhere in the little ponds. They were really interesting to watch for a while.
Next, I walked around some more and with the idea of Supernatural filming somewhere in my mind, I actually paid very close attention to a group of workers somewhere down a hiking trail. The group looked like it might be a filming crew at a first glance but unfortunately, they were really only working on the slopes.
Before leaving the mountain, there was another lumberjack show. Consequently I could watch the beginning of the show that I had missed earlier.
After having to wait for the shuttle for a whie, it quickly brought me back to Canada Place. I remembered seeing a live video of Misha Collins somewhere close to the Canada Place about a month ago and since I was still on my crazy Supernatural trip, I walked there to check that place out again. There was actually a lot going on in that area - there was some American sport game event? Nevertheless, there was nothing related to the Supernatural show. Thus I walked back to the hostel.
Just after I got ready to go out and eat a little something for dinner, I discovered that someone had posted current Supernatural filming locations online. Even though I hadn't eaten much all day, I decided to try my luck and go to check the locations out. There were two locations posted and I tried walking to the closer one. I couldn't really find it, though and rechecking the online information made me believe that the other location would be the more likely bet. Thus, I just caught a bus and went there.
The bus drove through some rather bad looking areas: There were a lot of homeless people trying to sell their stuff on the street. However, the area where I got off didn't look too bad anymore and after walking to the wrong direction at first, I quickly found a film set (at Clark Drive and Franklin Street).
As it turned out, there was really some filming for Supernatural season 12 episode 5 going on. There weren't any of the usual actors present, though. It was just a really short scene where some woman in a fancy white dress walked up the a building and entered through a door. They filmed that scene about three times before wrapping up for the day.
Even though I didn't get to see any of the actors again (I heard that Jared and Jensen were in Phoenix or somewhere), it was cool to be able to watch the making of a scene. I wasn't the only one watching - there were actually several fans who had found their way to the set. We were moved around a little bit so that we wouldn't be in the picture. The crew members were all really friendly and didn't seem to mind us watching at all, which was cool. I can't wait to see that scene on TV, though.
Just when I was about to leave, one of the other fans mentioned that she had some fruits she couldn't take with her across the border and thus would have to toss now. She was looking for someone to give it to and since I am always happy about some free goods, I happily took it from her.
I took the first bus that went past the filming location and luckily it brought me directly to the hostel. It was already 9:30 PM and I felt like I should really eat something reasonable. As my coworker Jennifer had recomended 'The Moose', which was right around the corner, I decided to go there. I had a 'Moose Burger' (it was only a normal beef burger, though) and some cranberry juice, which was rather cheap and pretty tasty.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
The last day of the overwhelming Supernatural convention
After going to bed at 2 AM last night, I could barely sleep since I was so excited about the convention and the picture with Castiel I had planned in the morning. Since I was awake at 6:30 AM and felt like my hair could need a shower, I already got up at that time. I was so excited for my picture that I barely managed to eat anything for breakfast. As I was ready to leave at 8:30 AM, I decided to walk to the convention.
The photo op with Misha in his Castiel costume cost me almost 200 CAD. However, as I could hug Castiel and got a picture as proof for that, it was totally worth it. I even had one of my arms under his trench coat while he was hugging me, which was pretty cool. The moment was over too quickly, though. This time, I actually started crying right after I left the photo op room, as I was so overwhelmed by being so close to Misha again. Thus, I went to the washroom and just sat there for at least 5 minutes to calm down. I would have never expected that meeting Misha could affect me like this.
Next, I went to the vendors area to buy a t-shirt that I had been wanting to buy since friday. I had spent so much money already that a few more bucks really didn't seem to matter anymore. On the way outside, one of the volunteers of the convention actually asked me if I was ok, as I probably still looked pretty flushed. This question made me very emotional once again, I told her that I was just overwhelmed. Admitting to those feelings made them come up once again, so that I actually started crying again and after calming down in the washroom again, I decided to get some fresh air.
I walked to the beginning of Stanley Park and sat there close to the water for a while. I had planned to eat a second breakfast here. I couldn't eat anything, though, as I was still too excited about the day. As it was a bit cool and very cloudy, I decided to walk back to the convention venue and pick up my picture with Castiel.
I then took a bus back to the hostel, since the program of the convention wasn't supposed to start again until 2 PM and it was just past 11 AM. I spent my time at the hostel admiring the pictures and finally eating something, even if it was just a chinese noodle soup.
The photo op with Misha in his Castiel costume cost me almost 200 CAD. However, as I could hug Castiel and got a picture as proof for that, it was totally worth it. I even had one of my arms under his trench coat while he was hugging me, which was pretty cool. The moment was over too quickly, though. This time, I actually started crying right after I left the photo op room, as I was so overwhelmed by being so close to Misha again. Thus, I went to the washroom and just sat there for at least 5 minutes to calm down. I would have never expected that meeting Misha could affect me like this.
Next, I went to the vendors area to buy a t-shirt that I had been wanting to buy since friday. I had spent so much money already that a few more bucks really didn't seem to matter anymore. On the way outside, one of the volunteers of the convention actually asked me if I was ok, as I probably still looked pretty flushed. This question made me very emotional once again, I told her that I was just overwhelmed. Admitting to those feelings made them come up once again, so that I actually started crying again and after calming down in the washroom again, I decided to get some fresh air.
I walked to the beginning of Stanley Park and sat there close to the water for a while. I had planned to eat a second breakfast here. I couldn't eat anything, though, as I was still too excited about the day. As it was a bit cool and very cloudy, I decided to walk back to the convention venue and pick up my picture with Castiel.
I then took a bus back to the hostel, since the program of the convention wasn't supposed to start again until 2 PM and it was just past 11 AM. I spent my time at the hostel admiring the pictures and finally eating something, even if it was just a chinese noodle soup.
I walked back to the convention just around 1:30 PM to arrive for today's show program. Once again it started with the houseband Louden Swain and Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes explaining the rules and regulations for the 'PORNcouver' convention.
Misha was supposed to lead the first panel. However, as he was still tied up in photo ops, Briana, Kim and Rob Benedict improvised: They used a life-sized cardboard Misha instead of the real deal. At first, Rob was hiding behind the cardboard Misha and pretending to be him by imitating Misha's voice. He was talking about weird stuff like growing tomatoes in his garden and drinking their juice because it would soothe Misha's vocal cords, which were stressed because of his deep voice (it was deep compared to Rob's normal voice). After that, they were dancing with and kissing the cardboard Misha. In addition to that, they used him to demeonstrate 'the Eifeltower' again, although they called it 'the Golden Gate Bridge' this time.
When Misha finally came on stage, he actually kissed his cardboard self, too. After the other actors had left the stage, Misha started answering or trying to answer questions. One of the first questions was about what kind of inappropriate stuff Misha had done in college. He started talking about a journal he had written and that he had recently reread. He commented that reading that old journey was like reading the words of a crazy person. More precisely, he said 'I was nuts'. Apparently, some people from the audience said 'Was?', indicating that Misha was still nuts now (which was what probably half of the audience thought, me included), which almost seemed to have offend him a bit since he was saying, 'This is not your turn to talk, stop it'. To anwer the original question, he mentioned something about breaking into an underground system below his college to access certain buildings.
In connection with another question, Misha mentioned that there is a video of him running naked on the coldest day of the year during his collage days in order to get on TV. I guess there will be a lot of people looking for that video now.
Later, someone actually asked Misha about growing tomatoes and drinking their juice for smoothening his voice. The entire audience was laughing and Misha was just standing there a bit confused and wondering what was happening. There were a few similar situations during the panel where Misha was just a bit out of it and more or less speechless because he didn't know what to do about some of the weird questions. Also, after a while it seemed that he was a bit annoyed by the unusually cheeky audience. One thing he said was 'What happened to you people? You used to be so nice.' and I kind of got the impression that he wasn't really feeling comfortable on that stage today. Later on, the audience, Kim and Briana explained to him that it was all due to 'PORNcouver'. The two female hosts had just riled up the audience too much. So it was only at the end of his panel that he 'got to the bottom of why the crowd [was] very unruly'. I kind of felt sorry for him since he clearly wasn't very happy about his panel and the crowd, which had been quite tough on him.
Kim and Briana still kept the spirit of 'PORNcouver' going when they got the next two guests on stage: Jared and Jensen.
The first thing that Jared did after the girls had left was to kick the Misha cardboard off the stage... Twice. The way he did it looked actually extremely cool. The two were just hilarious and a really great team on stage. They were working together perfectly and mostly saying nice stuff about each other. I had actually expected Jared to be bigger than he was. I felt like he was a lot slimer than I had anticipated. On the other hand, Jensen was a lot bigger than I had thought, especially compared to other people. They told us several stories of when they had uncomfortable confrontations with other celebreties, which was quite funny.
Next, there was another bidding auction, which wasn't too exciting for me.
The last panel was lead by Rob Benedict. It was the first time he had the stage just for himself this weekend and his show was really great. He actually seemed to be quite similar to 'Chuck' - just a normal and somewhat insecure guy who had some artistic talents. The highlight was when he told the story of how he lost his virginity and that 'it lasted for about 40 seconds' to the entire crowd. Then he was a bit shocked that he had told such a story to the entire crowd on a whim. Apparently, that story had actually made it to twitter, because Kim and Briana mentioned that they had read about it there when they came back on stage at the end of the panel.
The only thing that was left now were autographs. I had an autograph ticket for Mark Sheppard. When I came up to his table, I hadn't really managed to take the picture I wanted him to sign out of the protective sleeve yet. When he saw me struggeling with the sleeve, he said something like 'I can do that for you - we do that professionally'. Thus, I gave the sleeve to him an he managed to take the picture out like it was the simplest thing and then he signed it. I was a bit embarassed by the whole situation, so I just thanked him and left quite quickly. Later on I wished that I had asked for a more personal autograph but I guess the way it is now is already pretty cool.
After that, I left the convention and walked back to the hostel. It kind of felt very unreal to me that the convention was over now. I was even a bit sad about it. At the same time I couldn't believe that I had seen all of those people from one of my favourite TV shows live and some of them had even been really close to me. Back at the hostel I still needed to calm down because I was extremely overwhelmed again. I had barely eaten anything today but I still didn't really feel like eating. Nevertheless, as I was feeling a bit light-headed, I made myself eat the bagel I had taken from breakfast since I hadn't been able to eat it this morning. All the while, I was telling my two roommates from Australia about my day and those weird emotions I was feeling. I still felt quite out of it and I was just babbling on about it. I think I have never felt like this in my entire life, there were just a few too many and too exciting impressions for me this weekend. I couldn't even make out or name any particular emotion that I was feeling... It was just weird.
Consequently, I just spent the rest of the evening in my room, writing about the day, admiring the pictures and freaking out about everything.
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