A Chinese-Canadian in Ireland

There's been a request for more Irish content in my blogs so here's Ireland with a twist. Walking around Dublin a couple of weeks ago, I came across a couple of interesting sites that pay homage to my ancestral and patriotic roots as a Chinese-Canadian. The first is a cafe called Mao that I'd never heard of before but just happened to come across. We didn't have time to go in, but from the outside it seemed like at least 70% of the staff was Asian - wasn't expecting that in Ireland! (I waited 'til some random Asian walked by and asked her to pose in my picture)



(..j/k, that's Rebecca. Friend from Hfx studying in Dublin)

You can't tell from the next picture that I'm in Ie unless you look closely and see the 2.29euro for a box of Timbits at the top of the pic. Or.. if you think about it carefully, have you ever seen a Timmy's where you walk right up to the donut rack and serve yourself? No. Neither have I. So when I went into this Spar (the equivalent of a 7-Eleven in Can.) that has a Timmy's counter at the back, I waited for 5 minutes for someone to come serve me - while grumbling at how slow Irish service is - until it finally dawned on my one-track-mind that it's a self-serve counter!

Israel

This is a picture of Izzy and I after the 2001 Vanier Cup at the Skydome (UM Bisons vs. SMU Huskies). Although Izzy played an amazing game and terrorized SMU's QB all day, the Bisons eventually lost to a very talented (and well coached) Huskies' squad. Not sure what I was staring at when the pic was snapped, but anyway.. Izzy is now a DT on the best defensive corps in the NFL - Chicago Bears with fewest pts allowed to date this season.



I remember playing basketball w/ Izzy back at UM, and the way this guy dribbled the ball, you wouldn't think he was 6'6, 275lbs. He controlled that ball like it was on a string. But the best part about being on his team was when he set screens for me. I'd run around him and lose my check for the next 5 minutes. Amazing all-around athlete.

He's also a really down-to-earth and cool guy to chill with. We would hang out in rez together and once in a while get some studying done. I remember we were prepping late one night for an anthropology exam, and when we were returning to our dorm rooms, we passed by this vending machine in the college. (Okay, confession time here) We were hungry. We stared at it for a second. And then I went down the hall to keep watch, while Izzy absolutely manhandled this thing. He flipped the WHOLE vending machine over and we cleared that sucker out. Needless to say, we were wired on chocolate during our exam the next day. Not one of my proudest moments, but I hope it's safe to say that we've both progressed quite well since then. Go Bears!