First of all: I totally published this and then the site fucked up and deleted some but not all of this post. So thank you for bearing with me and my/blogger's failures. I'd rather blame it on the site, but, you know.
The facts: I got offered a position with the company I was working freelance for in San Francisco. I accepted it since it offered me monays, a couple benefits, and basically a more stable existence in my native land. Yes, that's right - I'm moving back to Canada. I'm there right now, in fact.
So with the support of my very good friends in San Francisco, whether emotional, logistical or both (thanks E.O., Marc, Tol, Phil and roomie Amy!) I put my shit in a Uhaul Ubox (I'll give their service 2 out of 5 stars, contact me for more details) that is supposed to ship in November, and flew off to Vancouver on Aug. 13, a Tuesday.
That night and the two after it, I stayed with a very nice CouchSurfer in the West End of Vancouver, which is full of beautiful, leafy-treed streets right near the busyness of downtown and beside the water and a beautiful beachside park. I don't have pics b/c I didn't have a camera phone then.
On Wednesday I had four places off Craigslist and Kijiji (Canadian classifieds site) all set up to go and see. I made up my spreadsheets of their advantages and disadvantages and set off to see them. Let me just say that it is crazy how different things can look in real life compared to their photos. To sum up:
Place 1: Lovely but in a not-great area, and the guy wanted me to "pick a day" to do my laundry, in advance, so he could unlock the magic door and let me through, but only on that day, like it was the wardrobe to Narnia or something. Thanks, buuuut....
Place 2: Oh my god. I like the smell of incense, but this was like all-permeating. And granted, for 800 plus utilities you were sharing a house with only two other people. But jesus christ. Also, it was one of those houses where everything looks ratty and dingy, even if it's clean.
Place 3: What the hell? $525 rent, utilities included, beautiful washer and dryer en-suite? What's the catch? Ok, ok, it's the basement, and it's a sleepy residential area, and the ceilings would be kinda low for someone taller than me, and the place is tiny/my room will be tiny, but WHO CARES IT'S 525 DOLLARS A MONTH! And there's a roomie! And she's little and sweet! And she has a car and likes to go snowboarding!
Place 4: Um, ew. I would never live here.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A WINNER! 3, you may step up to claim your prize.
So ends the one-day saga of my looking for a place (I am the champion of finding places to live in like no time flat, don't jinx it laura!) and so begins the saga of my needing a phone.
Maaaaan oh man. Let me tell you something. When you first get your brand new laptop you're like "wow, it's so light! I could take this anywhere because it weighs no more than a feather!" - and then you actually cart it around on your shoulders for an entire day because you need it to access the Wi-Fi you scrounge from some rando café or a Starbucks (3 times in one day) and you're like Mary Mother of God, if only I had a Smart PhoneTM with, like, DATA so I could google map stuff from ANYWHERE and didn't have to have a 100-pound weight on my back while I walk way more than I'm used to in a city I don't know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sooo yeah. I did tons of research on phone companies and phones and eventually splurged bigga time on an HTC One cuz, I wanted to. So now I have a pretty phone that I can use to talk to people and stuff. And unlimited texting to the U.S., what what!
So then I was just kinda hanging in Vancouver. Following is a list of my observations:
1. Everyone smiles at the Vancouver airport. I was like, "that's nice, get out of my way, it's hot."
2. When I got here it felt positively tropical compared to the icy scapes of San Francisco. It's the humidity and lack of frigid wind, I think.
3. "Downtown" to me meant either "Toronto skyscraper good-luck-getting-any-food-out-here-chump" downtown or "Market Street dirty homeless" downtown. Downtown Vancouver is actually lovely, with lots of stores, restaurants, wide streets, and happy people.
4. It's really multicultural here, as one would expect. And I think that, like San Francisco, tons of the people my age around here are transplants. However, there are a lot of native English speakers with accents that I am bad at placing. I didn't notice that much in SF.
5. There are freaking palm trees at the beach downtown. I must say I was quite pleased.
6. I saw multiple houses with their front doors wide open. I think people were just trying to enjoy the weather/cool their houses, but I thought it was cute.
7. There are traffic lights that blink green. If pedestrians want to cross the street, the lights turn yellow and red and traffic stops. I don't know why I think that's cute too.
8. Everyone says hello to the bus driver and a lot of people say thank you when they get off, even when they're at the back. I often said hello to MUNI drivers, and I don't think I ever got one back.
I start my job Sept. 23, because I already had all these plans to go travelling and stuff, and they liked me enough to wait until then (from June ish when Dan left the job open for me). So what I am doing is:
Left Vancouver, took a luxurious ferry to Nanaimo, got picked up by Adam and his little brother, drove to Comox, went up in a float plane piloted by Adam.
Staying at Adam's fiancée's mom's house until their wedding. Then going back to Vancouver, flying to Yellowknife to see my parents, stopping in Edmonton to see my brother/his kid, back to Vancouver, over to NYC/Philly/Albany for Dan and Becky's wedding, then back to San Francisco to tie up some loose ends and see my friends again before going back to Vancouver, moving my stuff in and starting work five days later.
Again, thanks for bearing with me!! Peace oot!!!
Love, me
