My Little Foray in the USA

As most of you know, I took the PCAT today. It was the most intense 5 and 1/2 hours of my life but I am glad that I am done. Since my parents and I left UBC around 4pm on Friday, and I wasn't driving, I didn't have much to think about. Instead I looked at the world around me. I will give you a little taste of my trip.

• Friday night, we stayed at a motel in Bellingham, Washington. That night we went to a Thai restaurant where the servings were huge (I couldn't finish half of what was on the plate). The following morning, we woke up at 7 am and ate breakfast at an IHOP. Again the servings were huge and I couldn't finish it all (although I wasn't very hungry due to anxiety). I noticed on the menu that they served a 12 ounce fried steak. How unhealthy can that be? The US is probably the only country in the world where Asian people become fat because Asian senses force you to finish everything on the plate
• That night, after the Thai restaurant, we went to Fred Meyers and bought some energy bars for the next day. At Fred Meyers I noticed how available alcohol was. There was beer, kegs, red wine, white wine, vodka, rum etc. And they were all so cheap (not that I know how much beer costs. I assume that $2.99 for a bottle of wine is cheap though.) It must be pretty easy for Asian people to become alcoholics as well.
• After we returned from Fred Meyer (a large can of beer in my dad's hand) to the motel, I watched TV for a little bit. There was Discovery channel and so we watched that. On Dirty Jobs, there was a segment about recycling dead cows (ones that die from natural causes). Don't worry, they won't go to waste. It's someone's job to inflate cows like a balloon and then cut off their hides (think about that next time you wear leather). It`s another person`s job to then place the skinned cow into a pulverizer that literally tears it to shreds. If you are reading this and feel disgusted, imagine how I felt watching it. If cows had a movie version of Saw, this would be it. While I was watching this, I realized it probably wasn`t such a great omen to see such death and decay before the biggest exam of your life. But I thought: What the hay! Haha. Cow joke.
• When I went to sleep that night, I noticed the bed was too short. The blanket was tucked in tight so my toes kept pushing against the end of the blanket. It was very uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, I experienced a perfect storm of noise that basically kept me awake for most of the night. First, since the motel was right next to a highway, I was serenaded with a chorus of cars schreeching by. My dad, a prolific snorer, fell asleep faster than any of us, even though he later proclaimed that he waited until we fell asleep first. I was amazed at the amazing variety of gutteral sounds one could produce in there sleep. Too bad we don`t use any of them in everyday language. Lastly, there was a party going on in the motel room next door (who parties at a Motel 6 in Bellingham, Washington anway?) Knowing I had to wake up at 7 am the next morning didn`t lull me to sleep as much as you might think. Amazingly, I eventually fell asleep although I woke up a couple of times during the night.
• Now, up to this point I hadn`t seen many, if any Asian people in Bellingham, Washington (I wasn`t exactly looking for them though). When I got to the testing centre, I realized why. Everyone there was Asian. Literally everyone. Well, there was one white kid. But when we went into the testing centre, he left and never came back. I guess he realized pharmacy wasn`t for him.
  
• As I was leaving, I noticed how nice the campus at Western Washington University was. It was probably smaller than the UBC campus, but all the facilities looked pretty new. I was especially impressed with the nice public tennis courts (There must have been 6 courts side by side, painted like the courts at the Australian Open. It didn`t say Australian Open on it though.) I might be a little biased because there were these really good tennis players rallying on one of the courts. Why is it that in Canada, the people who use public tennis courts are always horrible (and sometimes shirtless)?