A Look At The Crew

Welcome everyone, to Golden's first blog. Sorry it has taken so long. So my original plan was to have my first post about Vancouver, but when I tried to sit down and write about it nothing really interesting came to mind. So instead I'll sum it up in 5 words...it was cold and wet. The end. The most exciting thing for me was watching the seaplanes land in the harbour (and Stanley Park was pretty sweet too). Anyway, hopefully on our way back through at the end of our trip it will not be as rainy.

My idea for this blog came to me when I was pondering the dynamics of our very peculiar group. So below is a brief overview of some of the intricacies of each person.

Alex

Heathy has a profound ability to quickly memorize things. In particular he can remember the location of certain shops/places almost perfectly having only been there once before. He is our own Mr.Reliable. For instance, whenever someone has a question like "where is the nearest bus stop" or "how do we get to the liquor store from here" they will always - almost automatically - ask Heathy before anyone else, because he will almost certainly know the answer. This has lead to us giving him the nickname 'G-Plex', a mixture of GPS (Global Positioning System) and his name.

Alex is also regarded as one of the more handsome members of the group. It appears that he too, agrees with this. One night in Vancouver, Jin - looking into the mirror at himself - says "Hello handsome", to which Alex immediately looks up from his book and responds "Yeah?".

Josh

Apart from being the exceptionally tall member of the group, Josh can be defined in his very 'thrifty' nature. He has close to perfected the art of money-saving. For example, upon locating a pizza shop in Vancouver which sells large pizza's for $7.99, he immediately bought one for himself, and ate half that night for dinner, with the intention of saving the rest overnight to have for breakfast and lunch the next day. I've gotta say it is funny watching a tall dorky bloke wonder around Vancouver carrying a pizza box wherever he goes (see picture). He certainly blended in well with the local 'bums'. Moreover, upon our arrival in Banff, Josh insisted that he not go in on the communal 'food money pot', and instead buy all his own food, because he believed we could not live up to his thrifty standards.

Josh also has an uncanny ability to misplace things. I think his pockets are some kind of black hole. He just shoves all kinds of random shit in there, and it is just pure luck as to whether it will come out again.

Campbell

Oh camby...where should I start? Well I suppose I could start with his exceptional sleeping ability, which has lead to us coining him 'the Koala'. Indeed, I think if Campbell had his way he would sleep 20hrs a day, and spend his 4hrs awake chomping on eucalyptus leaves.

He has also developed a reputation as being a 'Fun Sponge' - a term I think I picked up from someone at college - used to describe people who 'soak up' all the fun in a social situation. For example, when walking down to main street Banff from the hostel, Jin and I often start imitation Liam Gallagher (who has a ridiculous walking style) or just start goofing around in general, to which Camby will always say "I hope you slip on your ass and die". Another time we were standing in a circle kicking around a block of ice, and it gets to Campbell, who immediately kicks it away. I think his fun-sapping ways may even be related to his Koala-ness, since he will often look far too tired and drained to have any kind of fun.

Campbell also loves spreading his knowledge of random pointless information. Here are some examples (they may not be perfectly phrased, but you get the jist)

-"the black squirrel is actually rarer than the common North American brown squirrel, and they are also smaller in size"

-"did you know King Arthur was seduced by his step-sister"

-"two thirds of the world's eggplants are grown in New Jersey"*

*I may have made up this one

Jin

And finally, there is Jin, who for some reason I found the most difficult to write about. Well, apart from being the token Asian guy, he has developed into the group photographer (like the play on words there?). And, as you can see from the previous posts, his work leaves a lot to be desired. He is certainly not close to the standard of his big bro and photographic mentor Mr. Sam. Don't worry Jinna, I'm sure you'll get there eventually (unfortunately by then the trip will be over and all Kodak moments gone with it).

One thing we have also noticed about Jin is the incredible time and care he takes when eating his food. By the time Campbell has finished his meal, Jin will usually be about half way through his first potato gem. In fact, as you read this he is still finishing off his first meal.

For all of you hanging out to see videos, keep your hats on and keep waiting...

Golden