Every morning at 8:30am the journalism professor would ask us to bring up interesting stories from the past 24 hours. Today, Anthony Bourdain died and the Beckhams were falsely rumoured to be planning a divorce. This got me thinking: is entertainment news actually news? I was fascinated by late president Read more…
Marcus lives in Vancouver and doesn’t drive, so I said: “Let’s go to every single station on the SkyTrain network.” He said: “This sounds like a bad idea…but ok.” We started off in high spirits off Broadway-City Hall station, then we were tired by the time we got to King Read more…
I learned about Franz Boaz in my linguistic anthropology class and thought about his warnings on ethnocentrism when he researched linguistic anthropology in the US. I had many experiences of cross-cultural conflict in my lifetime having lived on three continents, yet I didn’t have a specific word to describe this Read more…
In the past decade, Vancouver has been increasingly transit friendly with the mayor promoting cycling combined with public transportation as an environmentally friendly alternative to driving. The West Coast Express (WCE) is a commuter rail link serving eight stations between Waterfront in downtown Vancouver all the way to Mission City Read more…
I don’t know about you, but every time I see a news story on some flood or hurricane in the eastern seaboard of the US, I’m frustrated by their inaction. Residents are aware of the risks of resettling in an area of high flood risk and hurricane zones but they Read more…
In my book Another Place, there’s a chapter titled Typical People. In that chapter, I highlight how other typical foreign students in Berlin spend their time on drinking, expensive coffees, and dress in high-fashion just to impress their peers. I don’t call them my peers because that would imply that Read more…
Being a citizen of a country must grant you certain rights and freedoms right? But Canada begs to differ. I’ve tried to apply for an ID card and a driver’s license only to be turned away by ICBC in Vancouver because I wasn’t resident in Canada. I mean sure, I Read more…
Being a student in Berlin is tough, they say it’s “poor and sexy” but the prices have been going up and getting a reasonable apartment to rent isn’t easy. Luckily for me the students’ union had just the place for me, it is a little far in a former Soviet Read more…
Olympiastadion – Germania and Beyond This was the first bit of serious research I’ve done looking into the history of Nazi Germany and how its architectural styles reflect its ideology when I was in Berlin. It’s not very long so I won’t write too much of an introduction.
Authoritarian Themes of National Socialist Architecture in Berlin When I was studying in Berlin, I enrolled myself in an architecture and art history course out of pure curiosity. Being a foreigner in a prominent university in Germany, I took full advantage of this situation and decided to write about a Read more…