Update! Summer ending...

Hello~

I am so horrible at keeping blogs.  Just wanted to update this thing.  It'll be a random 

This summer has been pretty eventful for me.  I also managed to stay within budget ^^V  Some highlights:

• Tried west African food for the first time
•  My boyfriend's coworker misses home so our church small group decided to hunt for a restaurant that served west African food and treat him. There were two to choose from (that came up on Google search) that were in the Vancouver area: African Delight, and Taste of Africa.  We checked out African Delight first, which looked like a restaurant and said it opens at 1:30 pm that day... but it was 2:00 pm and not a soul was in sight.  We then wandered to Taste of Africa.  It was a very small place, with a cafeteria-style dining area, and grocery items for sale.  Both places did not have cassava leaves, which was our friend's favourite food.  Finally, the other place opened, so we all scurried out towards the restaurant.  The lady serving us was really nice, and walked us through the menu patiently.  By then we were all so hungry that we just ordered one of everything that they had.  It was funny, because even though the menu was pretty big, they are not always available. From what I remember, we had Egusi soup, Banku, Peanut soup, the signature Jollof rice, and sides of fried plantains and fufu (hehe I like that word).  Fufu (the white blob) is the rice of west African food; you mix it with sauces and engulf it.  Very delicious!  Most, if not all, of the food was mildly spicy, but it builds up over time.  
  
  
  
• Kite-flying and Richmond Night Market
• One of the first memories with my boyfriend is when he took me to Garry Point Park in Steveston, Richmond to fly kites. We revisit the place since then and it gives me the warm fuzzies (:  Our kite is the pirate ship one - pretty cool eh?  Then we saw the kraken. We went for one of Damien's Belgian waffles.  I recommend the matcha a la mode.                                              
• Then we visited the giant duck.  I pretty much paid my $2 entrance fee for that picture.  For those that want to know, the Richmond Night Market runs Friday and weekend evenings until 11pm or 12am. There are a lot of booths offering different foods and merchandise.  Maybe I'll make a separate post on it later.
  
  
  
• WOD (World of Dance) competition
• I've never been to a dance competition before.  I love watching hip hop.  It was always one of those things I wish I took up in high school.  At the same time, I didn't wanna look like a fish out of the water :p

• Portland, Oregon trip
• We basically hit up the outlets and shopped like crazy. I tried Voodoo donuts for the first time.  Their maple bacon is bomb.  Sadly didn't try any food trucks though, because it was too hot to stay outside.  Will have to come back.  We had Lebanese food at Nicholas restaurant, and their complimentary gigantic pitas were awesome.  I had the lamb platter. Their portions are huge. That is all.  We had chicken and waffles at PoShine's Cafe de la Soul.  Bomb. Also their deep-friend catfish and drinks were bomb.  We wanted to try the beignets but they weren't available.  Disney made them look so yummy :/
  
  
  
  
• Learned my first Filipino song to sing to boyfriend for our second anniversary
• It was a fail.  I got my brother to play guitar, and sister to record, but the volume was too low so we couldn't hear anything.  Kahit maputi na ang buhok ko (Even though my hair is already white).  I practiced for a week during work.  I'm pretty sure my coworkers got sick of it :p
• Made my first mango cake for best friend and boyfriend's birthday. Oh, and tested out my new takoyaki maker woot.  Does it look legit or what?
   
  
  
• Went to Nikkei Japanese Festival
• First time! Lots of lanterns and cute children in their yukata and balloon yo-yos.  The first thing I did was let people dress me in my yukata because I've never worn it before (don't know how to put it on =3=).  They even did my hair (:  There were mini games like fishing for rubber ducks, balloon darts, bowling, golf etc. and various food vendors came to support.  Most of the food was cold when I got them though. The thing is, they BBQ everything outside, and then bring it in to sell. There could be improvements.  There were also various performances going on, like taiko drumming and circus acts.
  
  
  
  
  
That's pretty much it.  The festival happened yesterday, and today I stayed in to rest.  What an awesome way to spend Labour Day (:  I'll sleep now, and be ready to take on the world tomorrow!
Ciao~