Summer Fun in Vancouver

Two more weeks in Vancouver, and I’m back in Toronto for a month. I figure I should update all my comings and goings since my last entry in MAY .

SCHOOL

Starting in late May until early July, I enrolled in two classes, audited one class, and was a TA for another.

Early on, I was taking a Reading Film class with Bruce Marchfelder. He’s a director/filmmaker who had a film compete at Cannes, teaches directing at Vancouver Film School (he even taught a few Battlestar Galactica actors), and he’s an adjunct faculty member at Regent. The class was half film analysis, and half theological discussion. I enjoyed the class – up to a certain extent. I thought I always had some artistic inclinations, especially regarding film. But after sitting through two weeks with fellow students nitpicking every single scene re: the significance of this shot, character placement, lighting, music, even the shape of a shadow cast by a lamp…. I’m not sure I’m THAT artsy. In any case, it was a welcome change from the general philosophical discussion that usually happens in the typical Regent class. Oh, here’s an interview with Bruce about filmmaking and God.

My other credit course was Theology of Culture with Hans Boersma. I found Hans quite interesting. By reputation, he’s quite “unique” among the Regent staff. A heavy proponent of sacramental theology, one might argue that he is staunchly catholic in his views. This leads to interesting events such as when Hans and Rikk Watts debated one another about the use of philosophy for the interpretation of Scripture. The class teachings started from the classic Christ & Culture by Niebuhr, addressing how Christianity and culture related to one another. From there, it was a systematic look at all the different approaches to culture that Christians have held. Now, what was crazy is that Hans treated this 2-week summer course like a typical term course. Readings had to be done and reported every day. A major book review handed in at the end of 2 weeks. Man, I had no life for 2 weeks, just living in the library and reading all day. Thank God I finished all my final essays by monday and I’m officially finished that class.

My audit course was Spiritual Discernment with Marva Dawn. It was great to hear about Marva’s personal spiritual journey and she is a personal example of how one can be scholarly, pastoral, and down to earth, all wrapped into one humble servant. My one regret is that the course was very similar to the one I had in Tyndale Seminary so I didn’t learn any “new material”.

Finally, I was a Teaching Assistant for Paul Barnett for two weeks as he taught about the book of Romans. Paul’s a bishop in the land down under, a scholar who’s written about the search for the historical Jesus and a commentary on 2 Corinthians (NICNT). Being a TA was quite fun, although since I wasn’t a marking TA, it was basically a glorified gofer (still good). I wanted to be a TA to experience another dimension of academia. Paul was great to work with – we had lunch together one day (he treated) and he shared his insights about the road through academia, balancing teaching and pastoring, and even sharing some behind the scene stuff about writing books and commentaries. Oh yes, and I got to largely sit in a class about Romans for free. Sweet deal.

SEATTLE

I can’t believe I already went down to Seattle three times. My first time was on a whim with some friends doing some crossborder shopping… then we ended up in Seattle crashing a bday party. I spent all of 3-4 hours in Seattle in a bar/games place.

Second time was for a whole day and I went digging for clams and oysters closer to the Olympic National Forest. That was fun, must do it again.

Third time now, went down for A&J’s wedding. Spent a whole weekend there. And I finally remember my camera and took a few pics of pike place, the market in downtown Seattle.

Here’s the original Starbucks

Pike Place Fish Market – if you order a fish, they’ll toss it around for all to see.

Here’s the video I took of them throwing fish

Found this Clam Chowder place in Post Alley – great stuff.

WHISTLER IN THE SUMMER

One of the many things I like about the North Pacific is that at any moment, you can drop what you’re doing and head out to some beautiful natural scenery. One such moments was when I went up to Whistler with some friends in June.

Yes this is Whistler in the summer, and believe it or not, there’s snow at the very top for summer skiing.

And while you’re in Whistler, why not check out one of the best restaurants in the village? Of course I’m speaking about Araxi, where the next winning of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen will become the executive chef.

And this is what I ate: Paradise Valley Pork Tasting (local food). It’s slow cooked belly and pork cheek ravioli with Pemberton sunchoke puree, chanterelles, and fresh peas. I went with 3 other friends and we were gonna split all our dishes, but unfortunately mine was so good I already ate half my meal before we decided to share. Aw well, more for me.

Tree Climbing on the Island

What summer in Vancouver can be complete without visited Vancouver Island? Although I didn’t go have high tea in Victoria or surf in Tofino, I did go tree climbing in Nanaimo. What a wonderfully tiring trip. I slept less than an hour, and by 3:30 am was awoken by my friend to get ready to take the ferry to the Island. Apparently it’s a huge ordeal so we had to make reservations and get there early. The one cool thing was that it was my first time driving a car onto a ferry. We saw the sun rise and it was already very bright before 5 am.

Finally, we arrive in Nanaimo

We then proceeded to this place called Wildplay where they have ziplining, bungee jumping, and a tree climbing obstacle course.

An example of how high the swaying bridge obstacle was at the end of the course – about 50 ft off the ground.

Now here you see a bunch of us trying to cross the bridge – look, no hands!

And of course, the prerequisite money shots of ME.

The same park has opened up in Whistler so if anyone is interested in going and needs a tour guide, I’m your man.

PAYING YOUR DUES

One final update before I go back to my last summer class and head out to Toronto. I mentioned earlier that I was a TA for 2 weeks at Regent College. That means I GOT PAID. Of course it’s not much and I already dumped a ton of money into my education here, but at least I can claim that my school paid me to study… even if it’s little pay and only for a short period of time.

God bless, and will blog more, now that I got most of my classes/and vacationing out of my system.