Eric Jinglong Ma's Website

Even though I’ve only been at it for 4 days now (and not the 1 week that I was targeting), I would nonetheless declare my “Great Vegetarian Experiment” a resounding success.

On Sunday, I made up my mind to try going vegetarian for lunches and dinners throughout the week. Initially, my goal was to see if I could resist the temptation to eat meat during those meals. The first day was tough, as I had to endure the temptation to eat those tasty meaty dishes (like Mingzhu’s bao zi) at a pot-luck dinner of all of our Bible study fellowship’s co-workers. However, having pulled through it, I successfully went through the next three days not touching meat for lunches and dinners.

One particular surprise I had, though, was how easy it was to make vegetarian dishes that were tasty. It seems that the secret to vegetarian cooking is to balance the natural sweetness of certain vegetables with the saltiness that comes from seasonings. In particular, I enjoyed making the vegetable soup that involved sui choy (watery & bland), tomatoes (sweet), celery (sodium-containing) and fried onions (providing sweetness). By adding just one packet of instant noodle seasoning (vegetarian, salty), the blend of tastes came together just right to make this purely awesome vegetable soup. Of course, I’ve also made a curried mixed bean dish, broccoli curry, and stir-fried broccoli, and they’ve all tasted really good too, but it was the soup that surprised me the most.

As such, even without the week concluded, I still declare this experiment a success, because I have learned how to make tasty dishes that contain a lot of vegetables. I still will persist till the end of the week on this vegetarian journey, but I do have to say that it’s nonetheless a great feeling to have completed this much!

I need more of it. There’s things that are intuitive to me that others don’t have at their fingertips. For example, molecular biology.

However, I also realize that my impatience really manifests itself when I encounter another individual with the following displayed traits:

• Resistance to advice from an experienced individual.
• Reluctance or inability to communicate the problem accurately.
• Persistence in a failed method.

I bet the list could go on. But in the meantime, on my side, I have to cultivate patience. And more importantly, I have to stop saying, “Remember why I told you this before now?” It’s equivalent to saying “I told you so.”

I never knew a vegetarian dinner could be this good! Home-made too! Stir-fried broccoli, imitation chicken curry, mixed salad nuts on brown rice.

Taken on an iPhone 3GS

I didn’t realize that leaving 20 minutes aside to do some light cleanup could pay off so well. The kitchen’s cleaned nicely, extraneous bottles and cans have been recycled along with paper and cardboard, and all the dishes, pots and pans are cleaned as well. This is awesome.

After witnessing an elegant Spanish team beat a Dutch team that tried to hack at them at every turn, I went out with Geoff to play some real futbol. We ended up at Eric Hamber secondary, where there were some guys setting up to play pickup.

This was the first time I had played in ages (probably over a year and a few months; the last time I did it was 1-on-1 against Hank). Because I was still afraid of doing a lot of running, but didn’t want to be stuck between two posts (I’m horrible as a goalie), I played in defence. On the first half that I played, I was in at left-back, and on the second quarter (I rested a bit in the 2nd half) that I played, I slotted in at right-back.

All-in-all, it was a fun game. I had been observing how some defenders play their game, including how to stalk out an opponent, tackling to win balls, and running down plays, but alas, without proper training, mirror neurons can only do so much for the first two. As such, I was mostly running down opponents’ attacks, forcing them to shoot wide or pass the ball instead. I guess for a defender, that’s good enough; my record when I was on field was only 1 goal let in.

One part of the play that I particularly liked, though, was when I was trying to stalk out a striker. He came in, and I was in the defensive position, but I was able to tackle the ball away towards the flank. I ran up to get the ball, but another opposing left winger was flying in before me, so I challenged the winger once more and successfully stole the ball away from their play. I then passed the ball forward to one of our own right wingers. Effectively, I had helped to breakup an opposing attack, and successfully won the ball back for my own team. That, I think, was the most memorable play I had

Otherwise, I found out how bad I’ve become at sprinting! A few sprints up here and down there, and I was panting like mad; I also had “the stitches” at the end of the first half. Totally unlike me doing long-distance biking! In the past, I was better at sprinting than at long-distance running. Now, I guess I can strike off “sprinting” from my list.

Even with all of that said, though, I really enjoyed the pickup game. Just doing some running around was fun, and even though I didn’t get much of the ball, having made that one great defensive play was satisfying.

Having come back from Victoria to Vancouver, I did a cost analysis of my bike trip. Basically, the question I’m trying to answer is: How much did it cost me per day to travel to Victoria on a 3D2N bike tour?

I did an account of the tour, factoring in only expenses that were directly related to the trip, excluding longer-term purchases I made (such as the GorillaPod flexible tripod stand from London Drugs, or my Take-A-Look Rear View Mirror from MEC). In total, I spent $185.10 over the 3 days I was there, amounting to an overall average cost of $61.70 per day.

Bike Trip Accounting

I think it could have been lower, especially if I had remembered to recharge my batteries so I didn’t have to pay an extra $6. That would have brought my average cost to below $60, which was my initial target. Additionally, if I had bought a bit more stuff at Thrifty’s for the ferry ride back, I wouldn’t have had to buy food on the ferry, which would have helped reduce costs even further. Finally, if I had restrained myself and didn’t buy that cup of sorbetto…… that would have been an extra $7 saved. But thinking back, I really did enjoy that sorbetto……

Anyways, looking at the stats like this, it seems a bike trip in Europe over two weeks would cost close to CAD900, but given the numbers, I’d rather be prepared with EUR1000 instead. Time to start saving!

So I make it back to Vancouver, safe and sound! After taking a day’s break, I’ve made the final video from my trip!

I make it through Day 2 of biking through Victoria. Trip to UVic, visit to Omar Olive, and mostly vegetarian dining today.

I’ve noticed that Ocean Island Inn is actually quite warm in the summer. I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re coming to Victoria and the predicted temperatures exceed 20ºC. I’ve been plagued by perspiration while in bed. For a summer trip to Victoria, check yourself into a hotel that’s got air conditioning. The price is probably worth it.

I also thought I’d share a few more photos of my bike, the trusty old pal that’s accompanied me through 3 years now, over more than 600 km (recorded kilometers; excludes all the unrecorded stuff!).

My Bike!

My Bike!

RunKeeper stats are found here.

As it turns out, my room was still a little too hot even at 10PM, so I went for a night ride around downtown, where I encountered sorbetto. I ordered a two-scoop Ice Wine and Forest Berry sorbetto. It was one of the best desserts I’ve had for a while now.

Ice Wine and Forest Fruits Sorbetto

Sorbettos!

Given that the Ice Wine sorbetto has 5% Canadian Ice Wine within it, I’m surprised I didn’t collapse and fall from ethanol consumption. My tolerance is notoriously low. That said, at the end of all of this, I think I’ve more than adequately replenished the 1104 calories burned biking from Swartz Bay to Victoria.